Anne Bradstreet: Relationship Between Creator And Creation

The relationship between a creator and creation is often complex involving affection and criticism. Anne Bradstreet’s poem demonstrates the intense emotions of how an author embraces, rejects, mends and ultimately releases a book to the public. The controlling metaphor in the poem allows for the complex attitude to be understood through a comparison between an author, a mother, and a book, her child.
Bradstreet established the comparison of a mother to a child at the beginning of the poem when she mentions her ‘offspring’, meaning her book. The author believes that her book is ‘ill-formed’ and immature and is embarrassed by her work. The author is ashamed because she believes that her book is a reflection of herself, just as children are thought to be a reflection of their parents. The author’s friends ‘snatched’ her book from her and brought it to a publisher without her consent. The act of ‘snatching’ is a negative activity, however, it was done by ‘friends’ who are mainly positive influences in one’s life. This conflicted attitude of positive and negative actions allows for the metaphor of control to be present.

Although the author initially rejects her book, the author’s attitude changes in line 10.

The tone shift marked by ‘yet’ allows the reader to understand how an author begins to mend a book. The comparison of a mother to a child is present because as the author revises her book, a mother would clean up a dirty child, a caring action. However, the author still finds ‘defects’ with her work. The author/mother goes on to stretch the book’s/child’s joints ‘to make thee even feet’, to help the child stabilize, like an author does to create structured, metered prose. The complex perspective of mending, but finding more flaws allows for the metaphor of control to be

present.
The author is not able to elevate her style, therefore not able to elevate the book. The author wears ‘homespun cloth’, which is for ordinary people. The book is not noble, it is ‘vulgar’ or common. The author finally accepts her book for what it is, just like a mother does with a child. The author is forced to release her book to the public, as a child is let into the world. The book/child is imperfect and not ready for critics, but it is still released. Bradstreet ends with a double entendre of the author being ‘poor’, an inferior writer compared to the other’s in her time, such as Shakespeare, and in need of resources. The controlling metaphor allows for the representation of an author/parent that initially rejects their creation, but then takes responsibility and tries to mend their creation for what it is or what it will never be. The complex attitude of a creator to a creation allows for an understanding of self-rejection and need for control.