Anne Bradstreet – the Author to Her Book
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The Author to Her Book
In “The Author to Her Book,” Anne Bradstreet explains how she felt when her poems were published without her knowledge and consent. She explains these feelings of resentment, humiliation, pride, affection, and commitment with the use of many poetic devices. She frequently experiences an internal struggle.
Bradstreet uses extended metaphor throughout the poem to express her unhappiness with the publishing of her poems. The use of this metaphor helps us to relate emotionally to her. Line one shows how Bradstreet views her own creation as her own child. She uses apostrophe and personification to express to us how her works were taken away and published without her perfecting them first. In the line “At thy return my blushing was not small,” Bradstreet declares her embarrassment. She then uses another metaphor in line eight to express again her pain “My rambling brat (in print) should mother call.” Her words seem to be harsh, but they are written with good cause. Bradstreet is trying to show more clearly her pain, relating her feelings of embarrassment to the embarrassment a parent of a misbehaving child may feel. This poem is written in iambic pentameter and the rhyme pattern is heroic couplet. For example, in line eight she uses the iambic pentameter to stress the relationship of the child and the book. She uses a simile in line nine to communicate her feeling of objection to the poems. She does not see them fit for publishing. Although she is disappointed, she cannot turn her back on them. Just as a mother would not turn her back on her own child. Bradstreet uses personification in lines thirteen through fifteen when she speaks of her poems as if they had a face. She explains that she would fix things if she could. She speaks of “rubbing off a spot” or erasing a mistake. Bradstreet also tells of adjusting the meter in her poem when she says “stretched thy joints to make thee even feet.” In line nineteen Bradstreet uses consonance “mongst vulgars mayst thou roam.” She uses this consonance to stress how she is about to finally let go. Through her struggles with perfection, she still loves and admires her “child” no matter what its faults are.
Bradstreet uses all these poetic devises to communicate her strong feelings throughout this poem. She uses them to show a relationship between