An Author to Her Book Explication

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An Author to Her Book Explication Anne Bradstreet’s poem “An Author to Her Book” is the narrative story of an author’s struggles and tribulations with a piece that he or she has created. The complex emotional connection that an author feels for his or her work is displayed through Bradstreet’s use of metaphor. Anne Bradstreet is also able to draw up similarities between being an author and being a parent through the use of personification and comparison. Bradstreet portrays the struggles, difficulties, and fears that a mother experiences as those that a mother would experience when creating and releasing a new work. Bradstreet’s use of metaphor allows her to relate the complex relationships of being a parent to being an author. When the narrator calls her creation her “ ill-formed offspring of [her] feeble brain” she draws parallels between how parents can feel about their children when frustrated (line 1). The narrator refers to her work as a “ rambling brat” to show how difficult it is to accept something she has created (7). The narrator seems to feel this difficulty not only as an author but also as a mother. As a frustrated parent feels the narrator once again uses the metaphor of a child to describe how an author feels when their work does not turn out how they wanted. The narrator feels that her work is “unfit for light” in the way that a parent can be disappointed in their child (9). Anne Bradstreet’s use of metaphor allows her to demonstrate the frustrations of an author through the frustrations of a parent. The personification of the author’s work by Anne Bradstreet creates a feeling of empathy towards the author. The personification of the book as a child allows the reader to relate to the fears and struggles the narrator has with accepting her creation. The narrator feels disgrace over her creation even though she has put so much effort into it.

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