Author of Her Book

The Author to Her Book

In this poem the author compares her book to a child. It is not till after her “child” is exposed for the world to see and judge that she starts looking at it and seeing the flaws it contains. It is quite sad that now she looks at it and cast it off as unfit now. She sees it now as something that needs to be fixed and worked on to fix all the flaws it has.

The speaker now realizing that her “child” or work has flaws she tries’s to fix it “…I washed thy face, but more defects I saw…”. The speaker is trying to fix it by washing away the flaws and scrubbing off the blemishes but more just keep appearing so she is becoming frustrated and is running out of things to do. She never looked at it in that light till the “child” was exposed to people and therefore judged. That shows what outside views and pressure can do to some people, it can cause them to look at things differently and see the mistakes and flaws the so willingly over looked.

In line nine I think it gives us some foreshadowing to what will inevitably happen to the “child”, “I cast thee by as one unfit for light”. That line seems to mean the speaker no longer see it fit for anything anymore and will cast it aside. Near the end of the poem it tells how the mother is poor and that is why she sent thee out the door. That shows that at the end even with all the work trying to fix it and erase all the blemishes it didn’t work and it was still sent away.

This poem shows some of how society plays a role in everyone’s life. If something isn’t publically accepted then it is considered wrong and is seen unfit. Like in the poem after everything the “child” is seen unfit and she eventually cast out because the problems could not be fixed. It somewhat shows the length people will go to, to feel like they are accepted even if it means doing something hard that they would rather not.