The Author to Her Book
By Anne Bradstreet
Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth didst by my side remain,
Bradstreet’s book The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung Up in America… was first published in England, supposedly on the initiative of her brother-in-law, Thomas Woodbridge, and without her prior knowledge. However, Bradstreet admitted in a letter to the publisher that she knew before the book came out about Woodbridge’s actions on her behalf. Her self-deprecating posture in this line is at least in part a concession to readers who might not expect a woman to write or publish poems.Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true,
Who thee abroad, exposed to public view,
Bradstreet writes in masterful iambic pentameter, but she deliberately varies the meter in this line, presumably to mimic the “halting” rhythm she claims to see in her poems. Later, she makes a pun on the metrical “feet” that make up a line of meter, wanting to make the product of her labors conform smoothly to the iambic pattern, but worrying that she falls short.Made thee in rags, halting to th’ press to trudge,
Where errors were not lessened (all may judge).
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
The visage was so irksome in my sight;
Bradstreet revised The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung Up in America… for publication in the colonies, but the second edition did not appear until after her death.Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could.
I washed thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot still made a flaw.
I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet,
Yet still thou run’st more hobbling than is meet;
In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
But nought save homespun cloth i’ th’ house I find.
In this array ‘mongst vulgars mayst thou roam.
In critic’s hands beware thou dost not come,
And take thy way where yet thou art not known;
If for thy father asked, say thou hadst none;
The last line reclaims some agency over her artistic work that the speaker appears to lack in line three. However, she still qualifies her decision to publish, saying she only does so because she could use the money.And for thy mother, she alas is poor,
Which caused her thus to send thee out of door.