The speaker changes tone here indicating that she still holds affection for her book although she is unhappy with the state in which it was published. The speaker compares her affection for her book to the unconditional love of a parent for their child. This change in tone is reflected by the use of a spondee (a double stress) which creates emphasis on ‘mine’ and ‘own.’ By emphasizing these two words, the speaker subverts the meter of the poem and draws attention to the overarching importance of the book to its author. Regardless of the circumstances of its publication, the written work is still the beloved creation of its author.
The noun visage is a person’s face or facial features. The use of visage here describes the ‘face’ of the book as irksome, meaning irritating or annoying to its author. Thus, while this line uses older Elizabethan vocabulary, its meaning is relatively simple: the book is irritating to look at for the author. We may deduce from earlier lines that this irritation is due to its perceived imperfections or flaws, which causes the author to recoil from it in disgust. This line furthers the exasperated tone of the speaker as one disgusted by the flawed product of her own making, thus unfit or unready for release into the outside world.
This poem is comprised of a series of heroic couplets: pairs of rhyming lines in iambic pentameter. The use of this orderly rhyme scheme emphasizes the poet’s deliberate control over her language; mirroring the poem’s thematic exploration of the relationship between author and written work.
