"Arthur to Her book", by Anne Bradstreet.

The Author to her Book

Just as the seasons, and weather differentiates human attitudes and emotions tend to also. Anne Bradstreet makes the reader well aware of the indecisiveness of human attitudes as well as emotions in her poem, "The Author to her Book". With the literary device personification, along with metaphor Bradstreet relates the book to a child, of ill form, descending from her "feeble brain", and expresses the shame and disapproval she felt due to the imperfection of the book.

There's a strong possibility that Bradstreet suffered from low self-esteem, due to her uncertainty on the novel that she composed. Bradstreet insisted in condescending her own creation, her offspring, her child. Bradstreet found the book to be a worthless nuisance, and in spite of that held onto it with all her might so that it would not be exposed to the public. Once it was discovered by the public eye Bradstreet did everything within her will to repair it, "I washed thy face, but more defects I saw-And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw."

English: "The Tenth Muse," a collection of poems a...

one of the more common paintings of anne bradstree...

Second edition title page of Anne Bradstreet's poe...

However no matter how hard she tried to dot her t's and cross her i's, she still found imperfection. Bradstreet found the book to be so imperfect to a point of shame.

"I cast thee by as one unfit for light". Not a literal casting, but what Bradstreet is attempting to relay to the reader is that she bestowed to the book a label as one "unfit for light". Perhaps this light she speaks of is spotlight, the ability to shine and stand out from the rest. Or possibly the light may represent fame. And due to all of its shortcomings "I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet, yet still thou run'st more hobbling than is meet." Unfortunately, due...