Bradstreet conforms to her Puritan female gender role in several ways in her poem.

First, women were considered to be inferior to men physically and mentally, and Bradstreet alludes to this when she refers to her poetry as coming from her "feeble brain."

Second, she plays on the woman's role as mother to refer to her poetic work as her "offspring" and to describe it as a "rambling brat," yet one she feels "affection" for and so has tried to "amend" and make cleaner. She also calls herself the "Mother" of her poetry.

Third, women were supposed to be modest and retiring—not looking for attention or limelight. Bradstreet states that it was her "friends" who snatched her child (her poetry) from her and put it on public display, stating that she is "blushing" at the exposure of her "errors." She also modestly refers to her poetry as "homespun" work, implying it is less fine than what men produce.

Bradstreet assumes the role of the modest and blushing mother to an unworthy poetic child that is the product of her feeble woman's brain. Of course, she is writing tongue-in-cheek, meaning all of this as a joke: in reality she is proud of her "child" (i.e., her work).