The Author to Her Book Literature and Writing Quotes

The speaker’s poetry is “ill-formed,” but this is only because she hasn’t revised it yet. Duh! Nothing is perfectly “formed” right away now, is it?

Clearly the speaker is talking about publication, which here doesn’t sound too good. Exposed to public view? That’s what you say if your pants fall off in public. We can’t help thinking the speaker feels as though publishing is like exposing something private and personal.

The word “trudge” suggests a strange kind of walking. This foreshadows the speaker’s later description of her poetry as “hobbling.” Both passages suggest that her poetry is less than smooth, to say the least.

The speaker’s written work—her poems—are pithy or concise. Sounds like the early drafts were, well, long-winded. What else would “rambling” mean anyway?

The work of revising one’s written work is here compared to washing off a child’s face, and rubbing off a spot. Perhaps this is the wrong way to look at it—clearly, washing and rubbing are just an attempt to touch things up. Maybe she should try re-writing instead (yeah we know that’s no fun).

The speaker claims she can’t make her poems have “even feet,” and yet she is able to rhyme “feet” and “meet,” which suggests that her poetic “feet” are indeed “meet” (appropriate, sufficient, good). In other words, she’s not as bad as she thinks.

Well darn, all she’s got is “home-spun cloth.” It sure sounds like this is a neat little metaphorical description of the all-too-common problem of not being able to find the right words to say something, or “better” words.

The speaker implies that the critics will not be very kind to her writing. The speaker’s fears here are similar to the fears we all feel when showing our work to peers, friends, family, and especially teachers.