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Word Choice and Tone in Bradstreet's "The Author to Her Book"

Decent Essays

After reading "The Author to her Book," it helps to know about the author's background. Anne Bradstreet wrote this poem after she had received her recently published book. The problem was that she did not want her book published. In her eyes, it was unfinished and full of mistakes. In the poem, she treats the book as a child and uses a satirical tone. Her choice of words and tone are very important to the theme of the poem. Some readers, mainly logical, would think that the author is simply talking about a child. The truth is that she is talking about her recently finished book. Bradstreet shows a mixture of emotions toward what just happened. The poem starts by speaking of a child. An "ill-formed" (1) child is mentioned. This indicates …show more content…

She also expresses a tone of slight fear. She is afraid that others will judge the book because of all the errors in it rather than focusing on the content of the book. "At thy return my blushing was not small, / My rambling brat (in print) should mother call." (7-8) These two lines show her embarrassment of the book. She was obviously not ready for the book to be expressed to the public, and she was mortified at the amount of mistakes she had made. She was ashamed to call it her book, and symbolized it as a "brat" (8) in her poem. She sees it as an ill-disciplined child for leaving her 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." (11-14) Bradstreet sees her book as a child that only a mother could love. She wanted to revise the book, but while she was reading the published copy, in her mind making changes, she only came across more problems. She would change one thing that would, in turn, make another thing wrong. She uses a loving yet critical tone for her book in this part of the poem. She does love her book, but, as aforementioned, she was not ready to publish it. "But nought save homespun cloth in the house I find." (18) Bradstreet continually notices things that she would have done differently, if given the chance. This line shows a tone of sadness and regret once again. She wanted to

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