Anne Bradstreet's Colonial Poem, The Author To Her Child

611 Words2 Pages

In Anne Bradstreet’s colonial poem, “The Author to Her Child,” Bradstreet compares the idea of raising a child to be perfect to the writing and revising process of a book. Bradstreet uses a metaphysical conceit to compare the complexity of her role as a mother to the love of her book. This conflict is developed through series of events throughout the poem when Bradstreet conveys the tone through the complex metaphor of raising a child to perfecting a book. The poem starts by “though ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain” showing the author’s complex attitude of the speaker. Bradstreet initially viewed this “offspring” as young and immature, still needing assistance by “dids’t by my side remain.” This shows the struggle between love and the

Open Document