The Blue Bowl by Jane Kenyon

Samantha Sosa

Professor Dunn

ENC1102

September 27, 2019

A Time for Everything

The poem “The Blue Bowl” written by Jane Kenyon is a powerful and relatable poem. The words in the poem are deep, and you can feel the sympathetic feelings of the characters including the speaker. In this poem, literal and figurative language was used to explain the ceremonial process and how it affected everyone. “The Blue Bowl” is a compassionate poem that goes deep to show the readers a passing, a fellowship and respect.

In the beginning of the poem “The Blue Bowl”, we first observe a passing of a family member. “We buried the cat” (line 1), says the speaker, which indicates the burial of a cat. These words of the speaker describe a saddening and unbelievable moment. This also shows that they had a difficult time during the burial. The characters in the poem used their bare hands to dig instead of using objects, “Like primitives we buried the cat with his bowl” (line 1). Primitives means ancient times, and objects such as shovels, were not used in those times to dig or burry. The speaker uses a tone of struggle and grief when explaining the process of the burial. I can imagine the sadness that the speaker may feel while trying to bury the cat. The speaker feels a void because of the loss of the cat, which she dearly loved. When the speaker states “we buried the cat with his bowl” (line 1), it shows a sense of support and love that the speaker has for the cat. Like anyone, the bowl in this case, deeply symbolizes the cat.

As the poem goes on, the speaker is describing the cat by saying “his long red fur, the white feathers that grew between his toes, and his long, not to say aquiline, nose” (lines 6-7). When the speaker describes her cat in that manner, I feel the deep compassion that she had for the cat. Although it may seem as though she is just describing the appearance of the cat, she is really describing the love that she felt for him by the tone of the sentence.

After the burial, the members that were attending had to remain strong. “We stood and brushed each other off” (line 9), indicates the members that attended the burial leaned on each other for support in this time of grief. They were preparing for a new reality, and the beginning of a storm. A member of the family is gone now, and they now must adjust to that loss. “We worked, ate, stared, and slept” (lines 11-12), and despite the loss of a loved one, they must continue with everyday life. The tone in that sentence demonstrated a sense of emptiness and described a dull moment. The next morning, “A robin burbles from a dripping bush like the neighbor who means well but always says the wrong thing” (lines 13-16). The poet feels frustration towards the robin because of what the speaker’s emotions from the day before. The poet is in a state of sorrow and not even the robin that is singing can relieve the pain the speaker is feeling. When describing the neighbor saying the wrong thing, this pertains to the robin who is singing outside during the wrong time.

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