In Literature
John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–92), also a native of Massachusetts, wrote a 900-line poem about her entitled simply Moll Pitcher. It was Whittier's second published work. The poem is not complimentary, describing her as a witch engaged in sinful work:
She stood upon a bare tall craig
Which overlooked her rugged cot -
A wasted, gray, and meagre hag,
In featured evil as her lot.
She had the crooked nose of a witch,
And a crooked back and chin;
And in her gait she had a hitch,
And in her hand she carried a switch,
To aid her work of sin, -
Contemporaries, however, describe her as plain: not beautiful, but not a hag; ordinary in appearance. Later in life, Whittier grew to dislike the poem.
Massachusetts playwright J.S. Jones (1811–87) wrote Moll Pitcher, Or the Fortune Teller of Lynn.
Read more about this topic: Moll Pitcher
Famous quotes containing the word literature:
“Scholarship cannot do without literature.... It needs literature to float it, to set it current, to authenticate it to all the race, to get it out of closets and into the brains of men who stir abroad.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“Literature must become Party literature.... Down with unpartisan litterateurs! Down with the superman of literature! Literature must become a part of the general cause of the proletariat.”
—Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870–1924)