Open Response Explication of Author to her book for the sample in portfolio of on demand writing

Tainara Candido
AP English
Per. 3
The Struggle of Satisfaction

The speaker of the poem “The Author to her Book” by Anne Bradstreet likens her book to a child to demonstrate her complex attitude towards the work. The poem’s controlling metaphor is that of the author and her book compared to a parent and their child to express the speaker’s resentment , embarrassment and disappointment towards her work. The metaphor depicts the speaker’s internal struggle as her feelings are conflicted by other feelings of affection and pride for her work. The speaker struggles to accept her work but must send the book to parts that are not “known”.
Anne Bradstreet’s use of a controlling metaphor shows the speaker’s attitude towards her book through the relationship of mother and child. The speaker’s attitude towards her book is complex in that it expresses many different feelings that contrast one another. The speaker’s feelings toward her book are that of a mother towards her child; she calls the book her “offspring” that after “birth” remained by her side. The speaker is the book’s “mother” and experiences similar feelings towards her book as a mother may feel. The speaker feels resentment for the actions taken towards the book; the book was “snatched” from her and “exposed to public view” before the speaker could edit her work. At the book’s return her “blushing” or embarrassment was great, because where the book’s “errors” weren’t corrected, “all may judge” her work. She once again likens her book to a child as the “rambling brat (in print)” is turned away by the speaker because its “visage” annoyed her. A mother may be disappointed with her child like the speaker describes is towards her book. The speaker was unsatisfied with the published work and believed it not to be finished. However, as the book is her work and she feels the it is her child, the speaker describes feeling “affection” towards her work and this emotion shows a different attitude taken by the speaker towards her book.
The speaker’s feelings of resentment and embarrassment are conflicted by her feelings of affection and pride for the book. The controlling metaphor in the poem shows the speaker as having more than one feeling for her book as a mother would have for her child. A mother may sometimes be aggravated her child as the speaker describes feeling “irksome” towards her book. But, the speaker is also affectionate towards the child no matter how else she feels much like a mother towards her child. The speaker was unsatisfied with her work and does not wish to show it to anyone, but since she is “poor”, she had to send the work out into parts uknown. Her feelings are conflicted as first she is resentful of her work, the work she considers her child and her feelings are not too far off from what a mother may feel for their child. The speaker then feels affectionate since it is her work, or child, and comes to accept her work and sends her work out to be viewed by others, although she warns the book to never fall into “critics hands” as a mother might warn a child against danger.
The speaker struggled internally throughout the poem to accept her work and is shown through the metaphor of a parent struggling internally with their emotions toward their child. The speaker at first feels resentment towards her work and her attitude is changed throughout the poem to affection and even pride, although she is not satisfied with her work. The different attitudes conveyed by the speaker are shown by the extended metaphor of author as parent and book as child, since a parent often feels conflicting emotions toward their child throughout the child’s life like the speaker feels towards her creation throughout its journey.