Can somebody help with this poem?

Question

The Blue Bowl

Jane Kenyon

Like primitives we buried the cat
with his bowl. Bare-handed
we scraped sand and gravel
back into the hole.
They fell with a hiss
and thud on his side,
on his long red fur, the white feathers
between his toes, and his
long, not to say aquiline, nose.

We stood and brushed each other off.
There are sorrows keener than these.

Silent the rest of the day, we worked,
ate, stared, and slept. It stormed
all night; now it clears, and a robin
burbles from a dripping bush
like the neighbor who means well
but always says the wrong thing.



from Otherwise: New & Selected Poems, 1996
Graywolf Press, St. Paul, Minnesota

Copyright 1996 by the Estate of Jane Kenyon.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced with permission


Can somebody tpcastt this poem? i want to see an example of tpcastt answers. you can choose a different poem if you dont want to use the one i selected.

Answer 1

My friend, I'm a little too tired and worn out tonight to comprise a detailed response here. So I'm going to leave you with this link to a student guide for understanding and applying poetry through TPCASTT answers.

If no one else replies to your question this evening you may be able to use this link:

http://www.carsonhigh.com/CarsonHi/depts/lad/macyc/tpcastt_poem_analysis_method.htm

Answer 2

Title

The title of this poem is 'The Blue Bowl'. The title is not about the main subject of the poem, but about a detail which seems almost incidental in the poem itself. The title warns us that we must pay special attention to even trivial details in this poem. The title suggests the poem is deep.

Paraphrase

When our cat died we buried him with his feed bowl - just as if we were people of a lower cultural level than we modern Americans. We filled the hole back in with the sand and gravel we had bought. We used our bare hands for this - just as if we were people of a lower cultural level than we modern Americans. The sand and the gravel made a noise as they fell into the hole and covered our tabby cat (he had a long snout when he was alive).

Then we helped each other clean up. We were pleasantly sad - not really too distressed.

For the rest of that day we were our usual grumpy selves. We did the normal stuff. Then we had rain that night. The following morning there was some birdsong. Birdsong always annoys me.

Connotation

The use of 'primitives' in the poem reminds us that the writer of the poem knows that she is better than some other people. Since she specifically mentions that she filled in the cat-hole 'bare-handed' we know that she is rich enough to own a shovel. ('Primitive' people probably don't have enough money to buy shovels. 'Primitive' societies sometimes do not even have malls).

'Sand and gravel' shows that the poet is rich and advanced enough to be able to buy stuff to bury her cat in. 'Primitive' people cannot afford to buy soil. ('Primitive' societies sometimes don't even have Garden Centres).

'Aquiline' is a latin word meaning 'like an eagle'. I never saw a cat with a nose that looked like an eagle's, but having 'aquiline' in a poem shows that Jane Kenyon knows some really long words.

Attitude

The poem is mainly about how Jane Kenyon is different from 'primitive' people, but is still open-minded enough to act like a Mexican when she feels like it.

Shifts

The first stanza is about how Jane Kenyon feels about her dead cat. Then the second stanza is about how Jane Kenyon feels about her friends (the ones who have come over to help her bury her cat). Then the third stanza is mainly about how irritated Jane Kenyon gets with the birds in her garden.

Title

The title tells us that the bowl was blue. We are not told the colour of the bowl in the poem. Probably Jane Kenyon has bowls in lots of different colours.

Theme

The theme of the poem is that Jane Kenyon can behave like a primitive when she wants to, but most of the time is so refined that even birdsong irritates her.

Answer 3

I confess to never having heard of TPCASST with regard to poetry before, and, having looked up the link from one of your respondentsI don't think I want to. It really sounds like that pompous *** of a teacher at the beginning of Dead Poets Society who elucidates the method of assessing the greatness or otherwise of a poem by scientific analysis. Poppycock! Ask yourself do you like it? Does it move you? Does it inspire you? Would you want to show/tell it to your friend? Do you wish you had written it? Could you have written it? PLEASE don't subject poetry to scientific analysis by numbers. That's like giving a painting a score out of 100 and thereby determining if it rates as good art.

Answer 4

You should ask for their permission so as not to be in breach of copyright or being accused of plagiarism. If they give their permission then its perfectly fine. If you dont know who or cant find the author then add something like "credit to author (unknown) no copyright breach intended".