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| Anne Bradstreet |
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| Sarah Kemble Knight |
Both women are very smart and witty for their time, and have unique and spirited ways of writing. Bradstreet's The Author to Her Book shows off her creativity by comparing the poems she had not authorized to be published herself as if they were her own child.
"Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth did'st by my side remain,
Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true,
Who thee abroad exposed to public view;
Made thee in rags, halting, to the press to trudge,
Where errors were not lessened, all may judge."
Sarah Kemble Knight shares some of that wit, which we see in what is essentially a prayer to rum, a prayer that she writes in the hopes that it will "charm" some loud men in the next room, so that she can sleep before setting out in the morning and continuing her journey.
"I ask they Aid, O Potent Rum!
To Charm these wrangling Topers Dum.
Thou hast their Giddy Brains possest--
The man confounded with the Beast--
And I, porr I, can get no rest.
Intoxicate them with thy fumes:
O still their Tongues till morning comes!"
Sarah Kemble Knight could almost be described as an edgy Bradstreet. Both are very influential women writers, but Bradstreet seems more appreciative of everything in her life. Knight, on the flip side, is quicker to judge and be unhappy about what she has. On page 191, in The Journal of Madam Knight, she speaks about the food as follows:
"Here, having called for something to eat, the woman bro't in a Twisted thing like a cable, but something whiter; and laying it on the bord, tugg'd for life to bring it into a capacity to spread; which having with great pains accomplished, she serv'd in a dish of Pork and Cabage, I suppose the remains of Dinner. The sause was of a deep Purple, which I tho'd was boil'd in her dye Kettle; the bread was Indian, and every thing on the Table service Agreeable to these. I, being hungry, gott a little down; but my stomach was soon cloy'd, and what cabbage I swallowed serv'd me for a Cudd the whole day after."
Anne Bradstreet, however, is still praising God and thankful to him when her house burns down. She seems a little mournful to have lost so much, but she does not wallow in that sorrow. She accepts that all of her belongings, now "laid in dust" were God's and were not hers. The bible verse Job 1:21 says "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord," and this may be referenced in her poem. The end of the poem is, as follows:
"A prize so vast as is unknown,
Yet by his gift, is made thine own.
There's wealth enough, I need no more;
Farewell my pelf, farewell my store.
The world no longer let me love,
My hope and treasure lies above."
Bradstreet is happy with the thought of Heaven waiting for her, and her poem ends on a content note. Knight, however, is unhappy with the food, unhappy with the way people behave, and looks at things in a much different way than Bradstreet. Bradstreet would probably look at her and think, you had a bed and a place to stay and you considered yourself unlucky? Whereas, if Knight's house burned down, she would more than likely write a journal with many negative adjectives about how life has treated her so poorly.
It is hard for me to choose who I enjoyed reading more. I love poetry, and I found Bradstreet's fairly easy to read. I liked her use of metaphor, and it is refreshing to see someone who has such optimism and faith. However, I do like Knight's spunk quite a bit. In that time, seeing a woman who knows how she feels and speaks it is extraordinary. Her journey was one not normally taken by women, and this makes her journal very lively, and fun to read. Thus, her personality makes me prefer her writing over Bradstreet.