PORTER, Sarah

Born circa 1770s; died death date unknown

Sarah Porter lived during the late 18th and probably the early 19th century. She was probably a resident of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and a member of either a Congregationalist or a Presbyterian church.

Porter's slender volume of published poetry, The Royal Penitent, in Three Parts, to Which Is Added David's Lamentation Over Saul and Jonathan (1791), contains work of such quality and interest it seems probable she produced other works. This work reveals ambition and talent in its 352 lines, which deal with David's guilt and repentance for his seduction of Bathsheba and betrayal of her husband, his loyal general, Uriah. Porter's handling of this subject includes not only religious but also political and social themes relevant to contemporary interests of late-18th-century Americans. The structure and content indicate at least a passing familiarity with Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel and the American poet Timothy Dwight's epic, The Conquest of Canaan.

Porter's poem presents two major themes: the workings of divine providence and the necessity for morality in government. The poem particularly emphasizes the concept that a country is only as good (moral) as its leaders. A decadent ruling class subverts national morals. Porter's was not a very veiled criticism of the contemporary political situation in the U.S. in the decade after the revolutionary war. During those years, a major complaint of those who remained staunch republicans was that the government and the nation as a whole were being subverted from the high ideals of the revolutionary era. This "subversion" was a result of an influx of new wealth, followed by a vulgar taste for luxury. Porter shows this type of moral decay through the example of King David as he remembers his humble beginnings, his rise to power, and his subsequent immoral behavior, the result of his lust for material possessions. Thus David's downfall becomes a warning for Porter's compatriots about their politics.

Porter's poetic ambitions appear also in her choice of style and form. She exhibits a thorough understanding of neoclassical poetic techniques and evidently possessed the training and ability to employ them with success. Porter produced a heroic poem in which characters of great personal and historical stature act against a background of national events as the supernatural and natural worlds mingle. The narrative alternates between descriptive passages and dialogue, producing an effective variety.

Published along with the successful Royal Penitent is a short work, a paraphrase of David's lament for Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:17). Taking full advantage of the substance of her biblical model, Porter uses the elegy to convey both religious and political themes. Using the Puritan concept of America as the new Israel, Porter draws an implied analogy between the dead Hebrew heroes and the dead American revolutionary heroes, stressing the recurrent theme of late-18th-century American literature—the necessity for national political unity in the face of anarchic and external incursions.

Porter made important contributions to the broadening thematic materials in the poetry of American women. She enlarged the scope of women's poetry to encompass current political and ideological interests through the device of the contemporaneously popular heroic verse form.

—JACQUELINE HORNSTEIN