Compare and Contrast: Bradstreet vs Sor Juana

There are many similarity between Sor Juanna's sonnet World in Hounding Me and Bradstreet's poem Here Follow some verses upon the Burning of Our house, July 10, 1666. Yet there are still some differences between them.

       Sor Juanna’s sonnet theme is basically saying that people should cherish insights more than superficial value because all superficial value fades away. On the other hand, Bradstreet’s theme is saying that earthly possessions aren’t important because the true treasure lies above in heaven where things will never age and fade away with time. Both share an idea that possession or physical value of things will fade away as time moves on. However, Sor Juanna states that the true treasure lies in our mind, not in the mind of setting to win any possessions. In Bradstreet’s poem, she still values possessions, but just not those earthly ones.

        Both poems use the key word “vanity” in their texts which plays an important role in demonstrating their theme. In Sor Junna’s sonnet, the word vanity means to pursue possession and superficial values. She thinks people shouldn’t throw their life away in pursuing the “vanity”. Instead people should set the vanity aside and search for greater insight values. On the other hand, vanity is used to mean crying over the lost of  earthly possessions. Bradstreet states that the very thought is all vanity, and she should think in the other way that the real treasure lies above in heaven. Both of them wanted to throw vanity aside and search for other values, either in heaven or insights.