1. Anne Bradstreet
The Author To Her Book

2. The Author To Her Book
Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain, Who after birth did'st by my side remain, Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true, Who thee abroad, exposed 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 washed thy face, but more defects I saw, And rubbing off a spot still made a flaw. I stretched 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 homespun cloth, i' th' house I find. In this array 'mongst Vulgars may'st thou roam. In critic's hands beware thou dost not come, And take thy way where yet thou art not known; If for thy Father asked, say thou hadst none; And for thy Mother, she alas is poor, Which caused her thus to send thee out of door.

3. Anne Bradstreet ( )
Born Anne Dudley was born in 1612 in Northampton, England. She was well educated for a woman at these times due to her family’s position having her being brought up in cultured circumstances.
She married at the age of 16 to Simon Bradstreet before they, and Anne’s parents immigrated to America as part of the Winthrop Fleet of puritan emigrants in 1630 and later served as governors of the “Massachusetts Bay Colony” with her husband and father.
Despite being afflicted with smallpox, she was affected by illness and paralysis took over but despite this poor health she still went on to have 8 children and maintained a comfortable social standing of living.

4. Anne Bradstreet ( )
In 1666 her home was engulfed in flames in a fire that left her and her family homeless and without personal belongings. Her health was getting worse at this time and suffered from TB (tuberculosis) along with having to deal with the suffer of losing her daughters, Dorothy to illness. But down to her religious devotion and knowing of biblical scriptures she maintained the belief that her daughter was in Heaven.
Down to being so well educated, this allowed Bradstreet to be able to write about a number of things including politics, history, theology and medicine and her own personal library was believed to be over 800 books but many were burned in the fire in 1666.
Anne Bradstreet died aged 60 in Massachusetts but the location of her grave in unknown as they don’t know whether she was buried next to her husband or not.

5. Anne Bradstreet ( )
Her work was first published in England without her even knowing by her brother-in-law, Rev. John Woodbridge and was published with the title “The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up into America, by a Gentlewoman in such Parts” – The purpose of this was to show that a woman, wife and mother could show a godly educated view. I feel it was almost this that contributed to writing "The author to her book" as she talks about how her work was not ready to be seen or published but still was even without her knowing and almost re-tells the story of her work being and unprepared and seen by others.
Anne Bradstreet’s most popular pieces of work are “The author to her book” “The Prologue” “To my dear and loving husband” and “Verses upon the burning of our house, July 10th, 1666”

6. Context Of The Poem
Most of Bradstreet’s poetry is based on the world around her and has mostly religious themes. She later wrote a series of religious poems names “Contemplations” which was written for her family and not published until the mid 19th century. She is considered by some to be an early feminist.
In the poem ‘An Author to Her Book’ Anne Bradstreet sets a general theme about her “offspring” and talking about how she’s a mother to this child. This theme throughout the poem is an extended metaphor further used to describe her own work and poems to being her own child.

7. Context Of The Poem
Anne Bradstreet uses this metaphor in a mostly negative way as she refers to her offspring/work as a “rambling brat” and “ill formed offspring” that is unprepared for the world. She shows this when she says
“I cast thee by one unfit for light, thy visage was so irksome in my sight” – this basically implying that her work is unready to be seen as it should not see light but has still been seen which makes her embarrassed as she mentions in the previous quatrain that she’s embarrassed that people have seen it “At thy return my blushing was not small” but Bradstreet cleverly turns this around through her extended metaphor when saying “Yet being my own, at length affection would, , Thy blemishes amend so I could”
Implying here that even though it’s not perfected or ready to be seen by publishers and as much as this embarrasses her as she mentions earlier that people may judge her on the errors which have not yet been perfected in her work “Where errors were not lessened (all may judge)” she still can’t bear a grudge against her own work, her offspring as like a mother to it’s child, she’s going to love it no matter what and that she almost has this bond with her work as she takes pride in it “If thy father asked, say thou art not known; If for thy father asked, say thou hadst none”

8. Context Of The Poem
The poem is summed up well in the final quatrain as she’s saying that she needed to let her work go and have it published, even though it wasn’t perfected or written to the best of her ability because she needed the money but was frustrated because she didn’t believe it was as good as it could have been. “And for thy mother, she alas is poor, Which caused her thus to send thee out of door.”
The poem is structured with an iambic pentameter; each row having five iambic feet, 10 beats a line structured as…
“da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM”
Each “da DUM” representing one iambic foot. And the poem has a rhyming scheme of ABAB throughout. With each last word to every line rhyming with the last word in the next line.

9. Context Of The Poem
Also noticing in this poem that Anne Bradstreet uses the words “Thou”, “Thee” and “Thy” excessively with not one quatrain missing one of these three words. Adding effect by repeating this “th” sound. She also adds emphasis with the repeated use of “ed” endings in used verbs. Snatched, Exposed, Washed, Stretched.

10. Techniques Used In The Poem
Alliteration ‘Made thee in rags, halting to th' press to trudge’
Alliteration is shown here with the repeated ‘t’ and ‘th’ sound shown in ‘thee’, ‘halting to th’ and ‘to trudge’
Extended Metaphor ‘Thou ill formed offspring’
‘My rambling brat’
These are examples of the extended metaphor
comparing her work to an offspring, her child.
Personification ‘My rambling brat’
This shows personification as it is giving human
actions ‘rambling’ to her work which metaphorically
has been converted into a ‘brat’