Anne Bradstreet uses one controlling metaphor throughout her poem. She personifies her book as her child. Though she considers it her child, her attitude towards it displays a wide range of negative emotions. These emotions include frustration, shame, and resentment.
Bradstreet chooses to compare her piece of work to a child, because so many comparisons are befitting to a living thing. The first line in the poem shows her discontent toward the book she created. She reflects on the "ill-formed offspring of [her] feeble brain" and continues with her thoughts.
Her book is then taken away from her and shown to everyone, which she does not want. Her displease with those "less wise than true" friends whom "[snatch] from thence" her book is evidence to the fact she is not yet ready for it to be "exposed to public view". This does not finish her ravings.
She furthermore exhibits her shame when speaking of the books worthiness. In her eyes, the book is not good enough for people. As "one unfit for light" she describes the book as something painful for her to look at. She then shows the frustration she feels a few more lines down.
Bradstreet describes her editing process. To her, it seems that no matter what she does to revise, the object in question is still in an unsatisfactory state. In her mind, fixing something makes matters worse. As she would edit and "[rub] off a spot", she still manages to "[make] a flaw". She tries to correct her mistakes that she sees as a defect. But she finds "[her book runs] more hobbling than is meet". And when she tries to embellish her work, she finds that she cannot find a means to her end. "In [her] mind" she imagined her book in "better dress"; however she could find none "save homespun cloth".
Lastly, she is afraid of what might come to pass. She warns the book to not fall in "critics" hands" lest it be judged too harshly. Even before finishing she explains why the book ever left.
