How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
To sing of Wars, of Captains, and of Kings,
Of Cities founded, Common-wealths begun, (1-2)
The way our speaker tells it, these are the really great subjects for poetry. In line three she calls them "superior." Where does this idea that poems about the past are the best come from? Well, that's what a lot of the really famous classical poems (like the Aeneid, the Iliad and the Odyssey) are all about. She probably has those kinds of big, manly poems in mind. For the ancient Greeks and Romans, and even for people in Bradstreet's time, poetry was a major way of keeping in touch with your history.
Quote #2
Nor can I, like that fluent sweet-tongued Greek
Who lisp'd at first, in future times speak plain. (19-20)
This is her first direct reference to a historical example. Notice that she doesn't use the name Demosthenes, but instead describes him. The message seems to be that any reader who knows her stuff would know Demosthenes just from the description of his lisp and his famously beautiful oration ("sweet-tongued"). She's helping us to see that even if she says she won't write poems about war, she still knows her history.
Quote #3
But sure the antique Greeks were far more mild,
Else of our Sex, why feigned they those nine (31-32)
The message here is: "Listen up chumps!" (Okay, Bradstreet would never say that, she's waaay too polite.) Still, in her kind of sweet way she's calling her critics out. By running her down and trying to shut her up, they're ignoring the wisdom of the Greeks, who understood that women and poetry belong together. That's why they made the muses women. Ooo, cold burn.