The Prologue Memory and The Past Quotes

In this line, she lets the Greeks go. Finally, she doesn't want to start a big fight about history. Or at least she doesn't want to end there. She's focused on the present. Notice that she also doesn't call for a big revolution in the present day, either. She's willing to let women be "what they are." What she's really after here is just a little recognition.

We think this is a really lovely blending of the old and the new, the glorious and the simple. Here Bradstreet calls up the image of the mighty poets of the ancient world, and compares them to her simple work around the house. In one way, it's a little funny, a gentle joke—we think the image of a parsley crown would have made even a Puritan smile (and yes, they knew how to smile, occasionally). At the same time, it brings a little bit of the glory of the past into her kitchen and her verse. Even if she won't make herself the equal of the Greeks, their legend rubs off on her by association.