The Author To Her Book By Anne Bradstreet

In 1678, many of Anne Bradstreet’s poems were published for public view. Throughout her poems Bradstreet tends to use symbolism to express her innermost thoughts and feelings. One of these poems is In Reference to Her Children, 23 June, 1659. Three of the most significant symbols in this poem are the representation of her family as a flock of birds, the dangers in the world, and the expression of her feelings toward her children. Anne Bradstreet’s representation of her family as a flock of birds symbolizes two different things.

The theme in this poem shows this mother in many ways, is mourning the loss of children aborted for whatever the reasoning. This is known by the statement made in line 22 “Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate”. She also mourns the loss of things that will not reach their potential, such as the sound of a babies’ cry, and voice or even the loss of tears. Another conflict that emerges in the poem is the desire of the mother to do what is best for her children and the finality of her decisions.

Anne Bradstreet was America's first noteworthy poet in spite of the fact that she was a woman. Both the daughter and wife of Massachusetts governors, Bradstreet suffered all of the hardships of colonial life, was a mother, and still found time to write. Her poem, "The Author to Her Book," is an example of Bradstreet's excellent use of literary techniques while expressing genuine emotion and using domestic subject matter.

In “The Author to Her Book,” Bradstreet is inundated in indecision and internal struggles over the virtues and shortfalls of her abilities and the book that she produced. As human beings we associate and sympathize with each other through similar experiences. It is difficult to sympathize with someone when you don’t know where they are coming from and don’t know what they are dealing with. Similar experiences and common bonds are what allow us to extend our sincere appreciation and understanding for another human being’s situation. In this poem an elaborate struggle between pride and shame manifests itself through an extended metaphor in which she equates her book to her own child.

"The Mother," by Gwendolyn Brooks, is a sorrowful, distressing poem about a mother who has experienced numerous abortions. While reading the poem, you can feel the pain, heartache, distress and grief she is feeling. She is both remorseful and regretful; nevertheless, she explains that she had no other alternative. It is a sentimental and heart wrenching poem where she talks about not being able to experience or do things with the children that she aborted -- things that people who have children often take for granted. Perhaps this poem is a reflection of what many women in society are feeling.

Anne Bradstreet was not the typical Puritan author. She wrote sweet and loving poems that greatly contrasted from other writers of her time. She did not write the ever so popular sermons that told people that they were going to hell and there was nothing they could do about it. Bradstreet was a rarity in Puritan times, she was a very educated woman that worked on something other than being a woman in the household. She was one of a kind and the beginning of an era. Using literary criticism when reading Anne Bradstreet’s poems adds a deeper understanding of her character and difficulties in life.

Harwood wrote the poem with relatively simple composition techniques but it provides a rather big impact which helps to give an insight into the life of a mother or nurturer which bares the burdens of children.

In colonial America, the role of women as a writer was widely criticized by the public. In the poem “The Author to Her Book”, the author, Anna Bradstreet, uses metaphors and connotations to create a critical attitude toward her previous bookwork. By doing so, she was able to convey that regardless of failure, she develops a motherly love for her work. The use of metaphor to create a critical attitude toward her previous bookwork was demonstrated in lines 1-3 where she states, “Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain. Who after birth did’st by my side remain.

Another poem titled “The Author to Her Book” gives the reader the image of a baby being born. Bradstreet critics her works again and again seemingly portraying her works are not good enough. She refers to the “child” having blemishes and crippling handicaps that represents the deep faults and shortcomings in her work. Washing the child, rubbing off a blemish, and stretching its joints but failing to improve his imperfections all contribute to an image of Bradstreet rewriting her book. Dreadfully trying to increase the quality and standards in her work, the more imperfections she found. Towards the end of the poem Bradstreet talks about how she would give her ugly “child” new clothes and it just appears that her real life actions contradict her poem. She is actually very poor in life and could not afford new clothes thus sending her children away from the house.

The poem says, “I washed thy face, but more defects I saw. ”(14) She uses this diction to connect her feelings to the reader. By this she is able to show her feeling of responsibility to the reader through the extended metaphor of a mother’s feelings towards her child. The mother is embarrassed by the imperfections of her child, and Bradstreet is mortified by the imperfections

Anne Bradstreet, as a poet, wrote as both a Puritan woman in her time and as a woman ahead of her time. Zach Hutchins analyzed this tension in “The Wisdom of Anne Bradstreet: Eschewing Eve and Emulating Elizabeth”, and makes a primary argument that three of Bradstreet’s poems provide evidence that Bradstreet rejects the Puritan views of a woman while keeping her own personal faith. Hutchins fither his argument by declaring that readers should not view Bradstreet as a symbol of rebellion or submission, instead as a symbol of wisdom.

In this stylistic analysis of the lost baby poem written by Lucille Clifton I will deal mainly with two aspects of stylistic: derivation and parallelism features present in the poem. However I will first give a general interpretation of the poem to link more easily the stylistic features with the meaning of the poem itself.

It is possible that the narrator is trying to reassure herself in this passage by claiming that the child was never made, but then why write the poem to her unborn children?

Even though, she will not be able to repay him with money as materialistic things are not of value, Bradstreet will write about him in her poetry, to show him her gratitude and express her love for him. I feel that Bradstreet wrote her poems about her father to impress him and make sure he knew that she was doing everything she could to repay him and show him her gratefulness for life. Bradstreet never discredits her father or places any blame on him for anything happening in her life, which was true of Puritan beliefs at that time.

Anna Bradstreet grows up in a healthy family. She was the daughter of Thomas Dudley who is the manager of the country estate of the Puritan Earl of Lincoln. Anna Bradstreet got married at the age of 16 to the young Simon Bradstreet who was working with Anna father. Anna Bradstreet never went to school but her father always taught her and gave her an education. It that time many women didn’t have an education. Anna considers one of the best and most important American poets. When Bradstreet was a little girl, she writes poems to honor and please her father. After she got married, she kept writing and it marriage didn’t stop her. Her brother in law, John Woodbridge, pastor of the Andover Church, brought with him to London a manuscripts collection of her poetry in 1650. It was her first book, The Tenth Muse was the first published volume of poems written by an American resident and it was widely read. Anne Bradstreet was a very religious and Godly woman. Anne Bradstreet always tried to live life in a perfect way. Anne Bradstreet was a woman of God and she always wrote about her faith in her poetry. She always talked about the Puritan and their believes and views on salvation and reclamation in her poetry. Anna seems to believe that God has punished her through her sicknesses. The Puritans believed suffering was God’s plan of preparing the soul and heart for accepting his mercy