2. Poet.
Born 1612 and died 1672.
Born in England but to moved to USA as part of the Puritan
migration.
Many of her works gave insight into the struggles of women during
the era she lived in.
Feminist.
Her works set a pioneering example of feminism.
3.
4. Speaker reflects critically on one of her works.
She does not value her work & continually reflects on the flaws on
her work.
Although she tries to improve it, she remains to be critical and
disappointed.
Self-criticism leads to her self-depreciation.
Directly addresses her book as if it were human.
Poem is an extended metaphor. Book is being compared to a child.
Diction of the poem is negative and reflects her criticism.
5. Opens with an apostrophe (direct address).
The speaker directly addresses her book.
She views the book as being “ill-form’d” which was formed
by her “feeble brain”.
Reveals the insecurities she has about her own writing.
Metaphor. The speaker refers to the book as her child
(“offspring”).
The metaphor continues till the end of the poem.
6. The book was taken from her by her friends.
Her friends were trying to help her by publishing
the book for her.
The speaker sees them as not being true friends
because they were unaware that the book was not
ready yet.
Aboard – overseas.
7. When the book was published, none of the errors
were fixed.
The world can judge her based on the errors she
has made.
Trudge – walk slowly or heavily, as if carrying a
physical or emotional load.
8. When the speaker saw the published book for the
first time, she blushed.
Now the world knows that the book is hers because
her name is on it (“in print”).
Reveals her embarrassment for having unfinished
work published to the world.
Brat – badly behaved child.
9. The speaker does not welcome the book and sees it as
being “unfit for light”.
The speaker believes that the book is poorly written and
needs to be hidden from the public.
However, it is too late because everyone has seen and
read it.
She is disappointed in her book.
Visage – face.
Irksome – annoying.
10. The book still belongs to the speak as a disobedient
child belongs to its mother.
“Affection” – she is going to try improve the book
through various ways. She is going to try and fix
the book.
Amend – makes right.
11. Metaphorical description of the editing process.
The speaker describes the ways in which she tries
to improve the book.
Reveals how challenging the revision process can
be.
Metaphor and personification.
The book is being personified as a child. The book
is being treated as how a mother would try to clean
her child.
12. The speaker is trying to fix the book’s form.
Even feet – measurement of patterns and rhymes
of sounds in poetry.
Hobbling – the book didn’t flow.
Meet – proper or suitable.
She tried to fix the book but it still did not flow in a
coordinated manner.
13. The speaker attempts to recover the book but she
is unable to.
“Homespun cloth” refers to her bad writing.
14. Personification. The book is being personified to have a life
of its own.
The speaker knows that there is nothing she can do to
improve her book and she sends it to live among the
“Vulgars”.
Vulgars – lower-class people.
She warns the book to avoid the critics because they’ll
judge her harshly.
15. The speaker believes that the best place for her
book to go is somewhere where no one knows it or
knows her.
She doesn’t want people to know that she has
written her book.
She wants to avoid judgement and criticism from
others. She does not want to judged based on her
‘poor writing’.
16. An excuse for her ‘badly written book’.
The speaker says that the book must deny having a father.
The speaker also wants the book to say that its mother was so
poor that she was forced to send it “out of door”.
The speaker is disappointed in herself for the book she has
written. The excuse is a way of her to deal with the
disappointment and embarrassment. This will allow people to
feel empathy for her.
The speaker conveys that she has written the book without any
male help (“father”) in the patriarchal society she lives in.
