Ramblings

Maybe it's because I've read "The Author to Her Book" at least a few times and have already discussed the cleverness and necessity of Bradstreet's presenting her book in this manner. Or maybe it's because I wrote my annotated bibliography on Anne Bradstreet last year for 301 and thus have read multiple articles about her poetry. Whatever the reason, I admit that I was a bit bored with "The Author to Her Book" when I reread it for this class. The girlish language was quite obvious, with references to "offspring" (1), "mother" (8), and "homespun cloth" (18). I didn’t really have any new revelations about feminist writing. This is not to say that I think that “The Author to Her Book” is a poorly written poem – not at all! In terms of structure and wording, I found this poem much better written than either of Cavendish’s. Maybe it’s the creative writer in me and having had a class with Dr. Messenger that makes me tend to scrutinize the structure and wording of the poems rather than paying attention to the content.

Anyway, I did like the idea that Cavendish’s poems reflect, as the introduction to her poetry put it, “psychological reactions to the process of writing” (160). The description of the sheer joy of writing for oneself, the anxiety that follows when one realizes that others will read this precious writing, and the desire for somebody to say, “No, this is good!” were definitely relatable.

I think both Brittany and Angela commented that Bradstreet and Cavendish were “rarities” in their days: most authors were men. I was thinking about the fact that things are sort of opposite today, or at least there are equal numbers of men and women writers. Maybe I was thinking more of fanfiction.net, the website where I’ve posted stories and frequently read others’ “fics.” The majority of the authors on that website are female. Likewise, out of the seventeen people in my Intro to Creative Writing class last semester, only three were male. Now, I realize that
there are plenty of male English majors and authors. I just think it’s interesting that sometimes we – or at least I – think of writing as a more feminine pursuit. I’m not saying that this is true – my favorite author, Ted Dekker, is obviously male.

I’m also reminded of an article that we had to read last semester for English 377 – “Composing as a Woman” by Elizabeth Flynn. Among other topics, Flynn discussed the contrast in the typical subjects that men and women tend to write about: women write about relationships, while men write about accomplishments (427-32). Bradstreet’s and
Cavendish’s poems seem to be a combination of the two: the poets describe their mother-child relationships with their writing as well as the tentative accomplishments that their poems represent.