The Author to Her Book

“The Author to Her Book” comprises 24 lines made up of rhymed couplets (successive lines that share the same end sound). Lines 1-2 recount the discovery and invention stage of the writer’s creative process. Lines 3-6 describe the publication of the draft of the speaker’s work. Lines 7-18 are the speaker’s efforts to revise and polish the poem. Lines 20-24 are a renunciation of the writer’s control over the reception of the poem.

This poem is in iambic pentameter. Each line has five metrical feet (the pentameter), with each foot made up of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable: “I stretched | thy joynts | to make | thee e | ven feet” (Line 15).

This regular pattern of rhyme and meter creates the heroic couplet, a form favored by writers of epic poetry and narrative poems. Anne Bradstreet’s choice to write about herself as a poet using the heroic couplet communicates how seriously she takes the writing process and her desire that the reader recognize her skills.