The 24-line, one-stanza poetry "Author to Her Book" by Anne Bradstreet is set in the speaker's home, where she is alone and attempting to review the "offspring of her brain" (her writing). Since the speaker in the poetry does not think highly of her work and does not want others to see her book, she has kept it a secret. The speaker takes offense at her companions taking her book and showing it to the public without her permission. The speaker makes use of images, personification, metaphors, and symbolism to demonstrate the secrecy to her work and her discontent that it has been exposed to the public.
The speaker begins the first line by speaking to her book. The speaker uses personification to commence her poem to demonstrate her attachment to her work. The speaker refers to her book as an “ill-formed offspring”. The personification of her work also explains the secrecy she relates to her work. The speaker also uses metaphor in the first line referring to her book as “ill-formed offspring”. She considers her book not properly conceived thus her reservations to reveal her work to the public. The use of metaphor is also evident in the first line where the speaker refers to herself as lacking creativity and being negligent by considering her brain “feeble”. The speaker also uses symbolism in the first line about her book as "offspring". The use of symbolism by the speaker shows of how much she wanted her work to be kept private and she did not intend to publicize it for she considered it not perfect. The diction demonstrated in the first line involves a proper balance of metaphor and personification to portray the speaker’s humbleness and affectionate tone. The second line uses imagery to portray the conception of a book, which the speaker calls “birth”. The imagery used emphasizes on the affectionate tone set by the speaker to portray her book as her valuable possession. The speaker continues on the second line and says “didst by my side remain” an expression she uses to show her attachment to her work, which she has secretly kept.
The speaker’s tone changes in the third line where she is critical of her friends’ action to take her book. She is displeased by the actions of her friends, but also understands their actions as trying to help, which she terms as “less wise than true”. In line four, the speaker continues with her critical tone since her friends took her book and exposed it to the public, something she did not want to happen. The speaker continues in line five with the personification of her book by saying "thee in rags". The speaker belittles her work, with the intention to highlight that her book was not perfect. She goes on with the use of metaphor in line eight by referring to her work as a “rambling brat”. The metaphor used, stresses her concerns that her book is not perfect and should not have been shown to the public. The eighth line also has the use of personification where the speaker claims ownership of the book by referring to herself as its “mother”. The use of “mother” is also the use of symbolism to show she is the author of the book. It also alludes to the earlier symbolism of the book being termed as her “child”. The ninth line keeps up the critic tone, with the speaker’s constant reservation that her work was not perfect and should not be publicized. The speaker uses more metaphor in line nine by saying “unfit for light”, with the implication being that her book did not deserve being in the public view.
In conclusion, Anne Bradstreet’s poem, “Author to Her Book”, highlights the thoughts of a disturbed poet who has her work that she considers to contain many errors and not ready to have her work viewed and critiqued. The poet is adamant that her work should not have been publicized and uses a lot of metaphor to show it has blemishes that will receive criticism, which she fears. However, the poet is quietly proud of her book, which she uses lots of personification to attach her work to herself. The poet is protective of her work, which she considers to lack creativity and full of error. Nonetheless, it is clear that she is merely downplaying her abilities for fear of criticism.
Word Count = 747
