What Is Anne Bradstreet's Relationship To Her Child

In “The Author To Her Book,” Anne Bradstreet, an early American author, uses conceit throughout her poem as a metaphor to compare her book to a child. This comparison leads the reader to infer that authors tend to have a motherly relationship towards their works. Bradstreet argues that the care and protection displayed to the child by the mother figure, reflects how an author may behave towards their works. From Bradstreet’s experience of not receiving consent before her book being published, the poem deepens this relationship. Through behaving with motherly characteristics towards her book, Bradstreet expresses the importance of respecting an author’s work. Throughout the poem, no matter the condition her child is in, the mother figure loves and takes care of her child. As the mother “wash[es] thy face,” (13) she strives to improve the condition of her child. However, after these improvements, …show more content…
Bradstreet cares for her child by trying to dress it with clothes that are higher quality than what the child has previously. At the beginning of them poem, the child wears clothes “rags” (5). In relation to an author’s work, this conveys to the reader that Bradstreet believes that her book was in a bad condition. As the poem continues, the mother wants to improve the quality of the child’s life. The mother makes an effort to do this by clothing her child in “better dress” (17). The metaphorical meaning behind dressing her child better refers to her striving to improve the imperfections and errors she believes her book contains. This includes the content of her poems and the decor on the outside of the book. Bradstreet’s describes her care for the book’s appearance as clothes to a child. By attempting to care for the child, Bradstreet proves to the reader that an author’s work is truly important to them and the reader themselves should also care for the