Answers from Experts When the speaker of this poem states in the poem's concluding lines, "my manhood is cast/Down in the flood of remembering," he is metaphorically comparing the rush of memories he is experiencing to a torrent of water. A metaphor is a comparison of two dissimilar objects in which the poet claims that one is the other. In this case, the poet is saying that the memories he is recalling are like the torrent of water that floods a river valley floor. The memories are causing him to experience feelings of dread and helplessness because they are so powerful. This poem was written by Anne Bradstreet. She was a colonial American poet, novelist, and school teacher. Born into a wealthy New England family in 1612, she married at age 20 to a man nearly three times her age. Her husband's death left her with six children. She managed to find time to write poems but could not sell any until much later in life when another woman's book review appeared in a newspaper. This prompted some publishers to offer her books for sale. Today, Anne Bradstreet is regarded as one of the founders of modern poetry because many of her poems include images and metaphors that are important for modern poets to understand. In conclusion, this poem means that the speaker's manhood has been destroyed by his past sins. He recognizes that there is nothing he can do to restore it because it was lost long ago.