{"id":987,"date":"2020-07-24T00:42:29","date_gmt":"2020-07-24T05:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/torrencia.org\/history\/?page_id=987"},"modified":"2025-12-10T13:03:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T19:03:21","slug":"bradstreet-the-author-to-her-book","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/torrencia.org\/history\/bradstreet-the-author-to-her-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Bradstreet: The Author to Her Book"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Date: after 1650, published 1678<br>Location: Massachussetts<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Source of Text: <a href=\"https:\/\/poets.org\/poem\/author-her-book\">Poets.org<\/a><br>Source of Image: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wikiwand.com\/en\/Anne_Bradstreet\">Wikiwand<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/torrencia.org\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Bradstreet-Author-to-Book.mp3\"><\/audio><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Bradstreet, &#8220;Author to her Book,&#8221; read by Kimberly, Amazon Polly digital voice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-pb-accordion-item c-accordion__item js-accordion-item no-js\" data-initially-open=\"false\" data-click-to-close=\"true\" data-auto-close=\"true\" data-scroll=\"false\" data-scroll-offset=\"0\"><h2 id=\"at-9871\" class=\"c-accordion__title js-accordion-controller\" role=\"button\">Reading Guide<\/h2><div id=\"ac-9871\" class=\"c-accordion__content\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Context: Anne Bradstreet was born in England and immigrated to Massachusetts in 1630, where all of her eight children were born. As one of the early members of the Massachusetts colony, Bradstreet, like her family were Puritan, and they came to Massachusetts to contribute to building an ideal society that would serve as a &#8220;beacon on a hill&#8221; to the rest of the world, as a community completely founded on Puritan religious values. In this poem, Bradstreet compares her first collection of poems to a child. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Questions to consider: What does this poem tell us about education and leisure in Massachusetts? What does it tell us about childrearing ideas and models of motherhood? Does Bradstreet portray herself as a good mother?<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"572\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/torrencia.org\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Bradstreet_first_edition.jpg\" alt=\"Title Page of the Edition in which this Poem was Published\" class=\"wp-image-988\" srcset=\"https:\/\/torrencia.org\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Bradstreet_first_edition.jpg 572w, https:\/\/torrencia.org\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Bradstreet_first_edition-197x300.jpg 197w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 572px) 100vw, 572px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Title Page of the Edition in which this Poem was Published<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" id=\"annotate-below\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Anne Bradstreet: The Author to her Book<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,<br>Who after birth didst by my side remain,<br>Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true,<br>Who thee abroad, exposed to public view,<br>Made thee in rags, halting to th&#8217; press to trudge,<br>Where errors were not lessened (all may judge).<br>At thy return my blushing was not small,<br>My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,<br>I cast thee by as one unfit for light,<br>The visage was so irksome in my sight;<br>Yet being mine own, at length affection would<br>Thy blemishes amend, if so I could.<br>I washed thy face, but more defects I saw,<br>And rubbing off a spot still made a flaw.<br>I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet,<br>Yet still thou run&#8217;st more hobbling than is meet;<br>In better dress to trim thee was my mind,<br>But nought save homespun cloth i&#8217; th&#8217; house I find.<br>In this array &#8216;mongst vulgars may&#8217;st thou roam.<br>In critic&#8217;s hands beware thou dost not come,<br>And take thy way where yet thou art not known;<br>If for thy father asked, say thou hadst none;<br>And for thy mother, she alas is poor,<br>Which caused her thus to send thee out of door.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Date: after 1650, published 1678Location: Massachussetts Source of Text: Poets.orgSource of Image: Wikiwand Anne Bradstreet: The Author to her Book Thou ill-formed offspring of my<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,12],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-987","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-found-by-a-student","category-us-history-through-1877","tag-unit-01","one-column"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/torrencia.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/torrencia.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/torrencia.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torrencia.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torrencia.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=987"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/torrencia.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3408,"href":"https:\/\/torrencia.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/987\/revisions\/3408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/torrencia.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torrencia.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torrencia.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}