Imagery In Anne Bradstreet's The Author To Her Book

In “The Author to Her Book”, Anne Bradstreet deceives everyone, even herself. The poem uses a metaphor to describe her poems.; her “children” refer to her poetry, and she employs vivid imagery to describe these “children” as ugly, deformed and abhorrent. Nevertheless, she employs this poem to tell the world that her works are ill-formed since poetry is the best way she can communicate to the world. However, she lies in this poem. She states that her poems are “dressed in rags” and have “uneven feet” referring to the poor vocabulary employed in her poems and to the lack of correct structure.”But nought save home-spun Cloth I th’ house I find.” Refers to her supposed lack of beautiful words to use in her poetry. Both of these claims are lies. In this poem and in her other works, Bradstreet demonstrates she is an educated woman with an impressive vocabulary. In this poem she creates a brilliant, grotesque description of her “children” proving her mastery of words. It also must also be taken into account the era in which her poems were written. Ordinarily, in this period of history, it was not common to find an educated and well-versed woman such as Bradstreet.

But why does she go to such great extent as to write a whole poem of the ugliness of her poetry? Considering the language used to describe her poetry; “ill-formed” “irksome” she must have written this poem in a moment of sadness and even anger. When she heard about how her poems were received, she was probably