Anne Bradstreet's The Author to Her Book describes the complex attitude of the author - specifically the attitude of an author towards her work. Through use of a controlling metaphor, that of a child, Bradstreet manages to convey all of her feelings towards one of her works. In order to introduce the controlling metaphor of The Author to Her Book, Bradstreet begins by using words that allude to the idea of birth. Within line one, …showed first 75 words of 454 total…

…showed last 75 words of 454 total…reader of the poem to determine from her use of those lines within the controlling metaphor of the child, is that when a critic comes into contact with a work that they should know that it is still rough - never to be completed. The Author to Her Book shows Anne Bradstreet's complex attitude towards any literary work of hers by giving the controlling metaphor of a child to describe different aspects of her beliefs.