In her book, "The Author To Her Book", Anne Bradstreet conveys the deep and intricate demeanor of the author towards her work. Bradstreet uses a controlling metaphor of a child and its mother to describe all of these feelings towards one of her other pieces. To do this, she incorporates many figurative language devices within the controlling metaphor to help bring her point across to the minds of the readers. They include diction, imagery, and irony.
In order to present the controlling metaphor to the reader, Bradstreet uses words that relate to the concept of birth. In line one, she declares, "Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain" to reveal how close she feels the ties are between an author and his or her composition. Diction also plays a large role in this quote and Bradstreet's piece in general. In this quote, the word, offspring bears a powerful purpose, one of a strong bond between a child and its parent.
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...Bradstreet's use of this word imparts that Bradstreet's attitude towards her works is one that is similar to this bond in her mind. In the second line of the poem, Bradstreet continues to say, "who after birth did'st by my side remain," which reveals another connection to this poem's controlling metaphor of birth and the close, yet complex relationship between an author and their work.
Another part of the controlling metaphor of a child that shows Bradstreet's attitude about one of her works is contained in lines four through line fourteen. Within the lines, lie Bradstreet's feelings about the state of her piece, shown through her feelings about the appearance of the metaphorical child. Throughout this piece, Bradstreet conveys a lack of perfection she feels towards her works. This is shown in the poem when she proclaims to...