Author to her Book, The Analysis

Thou ill-form'd offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth did'st by my side remain,
Till snatcht from thence by friends, less wise than true,
Who thee abroad expos'd to public view,
Made thee in rags, halting to th' press to trudge,
Where errors were not lessened (all may judge).
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call.
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
Thy Visage was so irksome in my sight,
Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could.
I wash'd thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw.
I stretcht thy joints to make thee even feet,
Yet still thou run'st more hobbling than is meet.
In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
But nought save home-spun Cloth, i' th' house I find.
In this array, 'mongst Vulgars mayst thou roam.
In Critics' hands, beware thou dost not come,
And take thy way where yet thou art not known.
If for thy Father askt, say, thou hadst none;
And for thy Mother, she alas is poor,
Which caus'd her thus to send thee out of door.

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i need more analysis for this poem because on friday i have exam ols writte to me somtheng more tnx

| Posted on 2009-11-15 | by a guest

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Bradshaw is the mother to her poetry and she feels like a failure because she let her "child" get away. she even extends the metaphor by saying she tried to wash its face meaning she tried revising it but she still didnt feel it was good enough. her poetry was exposed without her consent and thats why she warns her poetry to stay away from critics hands.

| Posted on 2009-10-21 | by a guest

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As a Puritan woman, she's obligated to outwardly seem demure and very embarrassed by the whole affair. Read a little bit deeper, though, and she's showing how the patriarchal society in which she lived could make even a very obviously talented woman such as herself feel tremendous self-doubt.
She talks about how the meter is off. If you read her works, however, they're all very structurally sound. She's an interesting poet in that her work generally has a (historically) subversive subtext, if you know where to look.

| Posted on 2009-10-14 | by a guest

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This poem is a complex metaphor about the author comparing her book to a child. The author to her book is like a mother to her child. She repeatedly compares her book to her child, and talks about how she would never have her child in rags, and compares her book to a child in rags because it was not finished or edited yet.

| Posted on 2009-10-07 | by a guest

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it talks about judgment, criticism, and disapproval of her work without knowing what its about or what its meaning is

| Posted on 2009-09-24 | by a guest

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i think that she was hurt because her poetry was released and allowed to be critized with her knowing nothing about it. but since it was successful she earned a living with it

| Posted on 2009-08-21 | by a guest

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it wasnt that she found her work irksome, but rather, she felt it wasnt good enough to be seen by others eyes. it wasnt in an interest to make money that her work was published, but against her will by "friends, less wise than true".it is mentioned that she is poor and sent it "out of door" but she never intended for her writing to be made public and was unhappy with how it turned out, no matter how many times she revisited and edited it.

| Posted on 2009-02-11 | by a guest

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Lines 11-18 also relate to teens and children today. Those aren't really considered defects anymore. Just everyday occurences within teenagers.
Also it was interesting that the "child" was the one that had to go out and make money.

| Posted on 2008-09-28 | by a guest

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youre right. sometime trying to fix an error only makes the flaw bigger

| Posted on 2008-09-05 | by a guest

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anne bradstreet portrayed in an amazing fashion the trouble that poets find in their own work. sometimes the things that one may try to correct in a piece of work, make bigger mistakes to ourselves for the work at large. poets are in fact the "parents" of their individual works, a fact that she states in the last lines. it seems that she felt the works were "irksome" and not fit for public view, but that in making a living she had no choice but to publicly display what she has created. the perfectionist nature is a difficult thing to control when one knows they will be met with scrutny.

| Posted on 2005-03-08 | by stolie77