A Woman's Love For Her Child: Poem Analysis

In the first attempt of reading (skimming and scamming) my original thought was the poem was describing a woman's love for her child. In this poem Bradstreet compares her book to that of an “ill-formed” child that does not deserve to be displayed. She describes the book to be something she is ashamed of, yet passionate about. The tone she seems to project is empathetic. Bradstreet sympathies for her book knowing how impossible perfection within the book is unobtainable yet she still take pride for what she has produced. She is ashamed of its creation and wishes it were more.

The first shift in tone towards her book appears when she says “Yet being mine own, at length affection would / Thy blemishes amend, if so I could:” (11/12). In line three she ridicules her friends for taking the book seeing them as unwise for not knowing the true value. She damns the book’s existence stating it was unfit for light. Its flaws are evident to her yet she cannot help but feel a sense of …show more content…
From of motherly view her efforts to love the child inextricable. In all efforts to amend the book she fails. Failing as a writer. Deploring the notion she is failing as a mother. In her eyes the book is not just a book, but her baby. Which is why she chooses to characterize it as such. These motherly emotions may derive from the fact Badstreet is a woman, and women have the tendency to take on a protective, and motherly role for the something they deeply care for such as the farmer's wife for her chrysanthemums in Steinbeck's “The Chrysanthemums”. Another reason for Bradstreet's motherly affection towards her book is her religious background and time period in which this was written. During the 17th century the main role of women in the household was to cook, clean,take care of the children which was common among puritan women and bradstreet herself being known to have eight children of her