Most poets are thought to compose their works out of painful places. Bridget Sprouls seems to be no exception. Some consistent themes amongst her poems include financial hardship, lack of belonging, and insecurity. On the other hand she also demonstrates an extraordinary commitment to celebrating individualism and flexibility. Most likely she started composing her poems to address her inner anxiety as a coping mechanism or a way to communicate with people around her about her mental state.
Sprouls typically writes short poems, although some develop into several pages in length. She experiments with a variety of styles, not limiting herself to any particular format. Rejecting most formal poetic rules, she does not employ rhyme or consistent punctuation. She does, however, favor enjambment. In the poem "Chatter" her sentences run on and on without particular stated subjects until they conclude with some sparsely placed end marks. And the poem "Scout" is written with many of the words scrunched together with no spaces, as if there wasn't enough time to include the spaces. This attention to grammatical and formal detail serves to perpetuate the emotions Sprouls is directing her attention toward in her work, and it adds legitimacy to her words.
Overall, Sprouls seems to be concerned with a lack of a sense of belonging. She's always moving residences or traveling or adjusting to the weather. Perhaps this emotional anxiety stems from a more physical place. In her prose she demonstrates a keen awareness of her surroundings, being able to describe minutiae that most wouldn't even notice much less find the specific words which effectively set the scene. She may possess an above average intelligence which in turn manifest itself in deep anxiety over variable which she can observe but cannot control, leading to a sort of neurosis. Whatever the cause, her lack of direction inspires her to look to her family legacy as a grounding point. She believes that she is a piece of a vast puzzle which adheres to certain rules -- her heritage -- such as adventure, independence, and friendliness.
