Journal 8: Compare and Contrast: Bradstreet v Sor Juana

In Anne Bradstreet's poem, her main focus is on physical belongings on Earth and how they are so insignificant and matters so little comparing to a Puritan's final goal, going to heaven. She expresses her sorrow in the beginning of the poem but then quickly shifts his mood into a pious Puritan, praising God and actually thankful because God could have taken her life but instead showed mercy. He understands that everything on Earth is temporary. However, contrast to Sor Juana's poem, she focused more on physical objects and possessions while Sor Juana focuses on the contrast between knowledge and wealth and beauty. Knowledge is forever and can not be robbed of while wealth and beauty are materialistic desires that are temporary and easy to vanish. Sor Juana tries to value vanity as little as possible because to her, she believes that vanity is not worth a dime. Both Anne Bradstreet's poem and Sor Juana's poem make good use of metaphor to make the poem sound powerful. In Anne Bradstreet's poem she compared a house to heaven and in Sor Juana's poem she uses personification in her title that the world is hounding her, basically meaning that the world is against her. They come in different backgrounds but nonetheless there are similarities in their poem and they both used bible as their philosophical bases.