{"id":101,"date":"2025-08-16T18:03:45","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T18:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/fys-pinsker\/?page_id=101"},"modified":"2025-09-01T01:30:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T01:30:04","slug":"anne-bradstreet-the-author-to-her-book-1666","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/fys-pinsker\/texts\/anne-bradstreet-the-author-to-her-book-1666\/","title":{"rendered":"Anne Bradstreet, \u201cThe Author to Her Book\u201d (1666)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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INTRODUCTION<\/h3>\n
\"Bradstreet\"<\/a>
19th-century illustration depicting Anne Bradstreet (Poets.org<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anne Bradstreet<\/a> (1612\u20131672) was born in England and came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony as an eighteen-year-old in 1630, with her new husband (Simon) and other Puritan refugees aboard the ship Arbella<\/em>, as they were seeking to build on the efforts of earlier Pilgrims and establish a safe haven for their non-conforming Protestant sect.\u00a0 Following the difficult journey, the Bradstreets listened to a stirring sermon from Puritan minister John Winthrop<\/a> vowing that if they could only “knit together, in this work, as one man” then their plantation (or colony) would become a fabled “city upon a hill” that would showcase their Christian virtue.\u00a0 Bradstreet was originally reluctant to leave England but she and her husband raised several children and seemed to thrive in Massachusetts and to build a loving home.\u00a0 It was a turbulent time for the Puritans, however, with debates over their own break-away sects and dissenters such as Anne Hutchinson (a close friend of Bradstreet’s) and with a civil war erupting in England during the 1640s.\u00a0 The Puritans, led by Oliver Cromwell, gained control of Great Britain for a period and even beheaded King Charles I.\u00a0 \u00a0 Bradstreet agreed to the publication of her first volume of poetry, The Tenth Muse\u00a0<\/em>–a reference to the nine daughters of Zeus or muses who inspired ancient Greek arts and sciences– in London in 1650 (a year after the royal execution).\u00a0 Bradstreet’s later poems included this tongue-in-cheek homage to her earlier publication which Edward Hirsch labels “a pivot point in her work” (Heart of American Poetry,<\/em> 10).\u00a0 “The Author\u00a0 to Her Book” and other personal poems demonstrated advanced skill and a unique voice, earning Bradstreet modern acclaim as America’s first great poet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Author to Her Book<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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\"Tenth<\/a>
The Tenth Muse, 1650 (NY Historical<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,<\/span>
\nWho after birth didst by my side remain,<\/span>
\nTill snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true,<\/span>
\nWho thee abroad, exposed to public view,<\/span>
\nMade thee in rags, halting to th\u2019 press to trudge,<\/span>
\nWhere errors were not lessened (all may judge).<\/span>
\nAt thy return my blushing was not small,<\/span>
\nMy rambling brat (in print) should mother call,<\/span>
\nI cast thee by as one unfit for light,<\/span>
\nThe visage was so irksome in my sight;<\/span>
\nYet being mine own, at length affection would<\/span>
\nThy blemishes amend, if so I could.<\/span>
\nI washed thy face, but more defects I saw,<\/span>
\nAnd rubbing off a spot still made a flaw.<\/span>
\nI stretched thy joints to make thee even feet,<\/span>
\nYet still thou run\u2019st more hobbling than is meet;<\/span>
\nIn better dress to trim thee was my mind,<\/span>
\nBut nought save homespun cloth i\u2019 th\u2019 house I find.<\/span>
\nIn this array \u2019mongst vulgars may\u2019st thou roam.<\/span>
\nIn critic\u2019s hands beware thou dost not come,<\/span>
\nAnd take thy way where yet thou art not known;<\/span>
\nIf for thy father asked, say thou hadst none;<\/span>
\nAnd for thy mother, she alas is poor,<\/span>
\nWhich caused her thus to send thee out of door.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Additional Resources<\/h3>\n