The poem starts with the speaker being annoyed which soon turns into frustration. Diction such as "annoyed", "gritting my teeth", and "doubled over" show the speakers annoyance and then frustration. Then in the last three lines it changes from frustration to a childlike joy. The word "somersault" had a childlike feel or innocence and the words "strangely happy" convey the speakers change in mood from frustrated to joyful due to the somersaults and rolling down the hill. The phrase "one complete somersault after another like a bagel" is using a simile to compare the speaker the the bagel he had just dropped rolling down the hill. That ends up letting the speaker relax and not be so up-tight and to remember the worry-free days of childhood once more.
The tone of this piece is nostalgic and humorous. The article "the" puts importance on the bagel: it's not any bagel, it's THE bagel and for a child, everything and anything is important. The imagery also supports this with the child's position with diction such as "running, bent low, gritting teeth". The speaker is making a special effort to save his special bagel and the way that it is described makes it seem like a hefty task.
The Bagel has a silly and care-free tone to it, played up by phrases like "fast and faster it rolled," "doubled over rolling down the street" and "strangely happy with myself." I think the speaker Is trying really hard to be serious and annoyed at the beginning- "bent low, gritting my teeth", because he thinks that's how he should be. But by the end, all he can do is laugh at himself. The metaphor between him and the bagel seemed like a release for the speaker- once he dropped the bagel, it was free from his grasp. As he chased it, he became the bagel(or resembled it), "head over heels, one complete somersault after another like a bagel,"..kind of setting him free in a way. Eventually, he stops questioning why God made him drop the bagel in the first place and ended up enjoying his sillyness. p.s.- I'm not expecting this post to save me from surprised kitty :0
This poem is very nostalgic and carefree. It has a rhetorical shift in line 9 when it says, "I found myself doubled over...". It shifts from frustration to acceptance. When he first drops the bagel, he's mad at himself and the universe for allowing it to happen, hence "the wind". I feel the wind represented the bagel being taken from him because the wind was carrying it. However, once he fell, he felt like the bagel being taken away. I feel this poem is about a grown man rushing to work, rushing to eat his bagel. I think the bagel fell and he became so consumed in trying to get it that he fell over, and realizing how silly it was, he decided to enjoy the moment rather than to stress about being late. The simile to the bagel shows how humerous it is. A bagel seems like a silly object, something round with a hole in the middle, but yet this man seems to feel some attachment to it. The main devices to focus on are imagery, diction, and similes. -katie harris
Although he is upset that he has to stop and pick up the bagel, the tone becomes whimsical and nostalgic. Initially he is "annoyed" and frustrated with the world for making him a "portent", like an omen that dropping the bagel and having to pick it up is another dreadful task and is just the beginning of another dreadful day. I agree with Katie's situation of a man who is stressed out about being late and falls over and laughs at himself. I picture a stout, old, balled man who is "bent low, gritting my teeth", and "doubled over". Once he realizes that the "faster and faster it rolled", he becomes determined to get the bagel back. With silly and childish phrases like "head over heels", "somersault", and "strangely happy", he feels like a little kid again. That he is "strangely happy" indicates his surprise that he could feel that way again.
The bagel is a whimsical and carefree poem that documents a child's experience with a bagel. The very simple diction suggest this poem is from the point of view of a young child with words such as "rolling away", "running" and "somersault". Since it is a child, the bagel seems of utmost importance to him and still wants to eat it even though he dropped it. After being "annoyed" with himself, the tone of the poem shifts to a whimsical one that is similar to the way a small child would tell an exaggerated story to an adult. It sort of reminded me of how my sister tells made up stories that make absolutely no sense whatsoever. He explains how he "rolls down the street" and does one somersault after another. It is very unlikely that any of these things actually happened, but the child is just running with his imagination and making things up as he goes along.
This poem focuses on the carefree life of a child, and how they they are completely willing to spend their time chasing a bagel. The bagel is a representation of how life goes on, as it is a complete circle that is never ending. This suggests that childhood is forever. Carefree diction is used to signify the simplicity of the child's mind, such as "rolling away", "wind", and "happy". The idea that it is rolling away suggests that the speaker is chasing after his childhood and does not want to lose it.
I thought that the last line of this poem really stood out from the entire poem. The whole poem emphasizes how frustrated he is as he's, "annoyed with [himself]," and runs after the bagel, "gritting [his] teeth," and finding himself, "doubled over. Then the very last line contradicts with the rest of the poem because in the end he is, "strangely happy with [himself.]" The last line has a happier tone because it shows that the speaker just has to look back on what he just did and laugh. It is one of those situations where he felt so pathetic trying so hard to catch a bagel, and getting so mad at himself through the process, that afterwards he just looks back and laughs.
Ok, not sure how I'm going to salvage this one because it just made me giggle to myself.
This poem is implausible. Typically, a bagel that goes rolling usually stops fairly quickly since it isn't perfectly round and its substance isn't the slickest of materials. Also the image of a person rolling in somersaults after a bagel seems surreal as well.
Even the emotions are exagerrated. Usually, when someone drops a bagel, it's by accident and you usually try to scramble to pick it up. Instead, the bagel is dropped as if it were a "portent"... something evil. I don't think that the average person would think about their bagel this way.
This is reminiscent of childhood because children tend to have the ability to make anything seem real, and have the imagination to believe anything that they want, even if it's rolling after a bagel. Children also have the ability to be incredibly dramatic and to stretch the truth.
The poem starts with the speaker being annoyed which soon turns into frustration. Diction such as "annoyed", "gritting my teeth", and "doubled over" show the speakers annoyance and then frustration. Then in the last three lines it changes from frustration to a childlike joy. The word "somersault" had a childlike feel or innocence and the words "strangely happy" convey the speakers change in mood from frustrated to joyful due to the somersaults and rolling down the hill. The phrase "one complete somersault after another like a bagel" is using a simile to compare the speaker the the bagel he had just dropped rolling down the hill. That ends up letting the speaker relax and not be so up-tight and to remember the worry-free days of childhood once more.
ReplyDeleteThe tone of this piece is nostalgic and humorous. The article "the" puts importance on the bagel: it's not any bagel, it's THE bagel and for a child, everything and anything is important. The imagery also supports this with the child's position with diction such as "running, bent low, gritting teeth". The speaker is making a special effort to save his special bagel and the way that it is described makes it seem like a hefty task.
ReplyDeleteThe Bagel has a silly and care-free tone to it, played up by phrases like "fast and faster it rolled," "doubled over rolling down the street" and "strangely happy with myself."
ReplyDeleteI think the speaker Is trying really hard to be serious and annoyed at the beginning- "bent low, gritting my teeth", because he thinks that's how he should be. But by the end, all he can do is laugh at himself.
The metaphor between him and the bagel seemed like a release for the speaker- once he dropped the bagel, it was free from his grasp. As he chased it, he became the bagel(or resembled it), "head over heels, one complete somersault after another like a bagel,"..kind of setting him free in a way. Eventually, he stops questioning why God made him drop the bagel in the first place and ended up enjoying his sillyness.
p.s.- I'm not expecting this post to save me from surprised kitty :0
This poem is very nostalgic and carefree. It has a rhetorical shift in line 9 when it says, "I found myself doubled over...". It shifts from frustration to acceptance. When he first drops the bagel, he's mad at himself and the universe for allowing it to happen, hence "the wind". I feel the wind represented the bagel being taken from him because the wind was carrying it. However, once he fell, he felt like the bagel being taken away. I feel this poem is about a grown man rushing to work, rushing to eat his bagel. I think the bagel fell and he became so consumed in trying to get it that he fell over, and realizing how silly it was, he decided to enjoy the moment rather than to stress about being late. The simile to the bagel shows how humerous it is. A bagel seems like a silly object, something round with a hole in the middle, but yet this man seems to feel some attachment to it. The main devices to focus on are imagery, diction, and similes.
ReplyDelete-katie harris
Although he is upset that he has to stop and pick up the bagel, the tone becomes whimsical and nostalgic. Initially he is "annoyed" and frustrated with the world for making him a "portent", like an omen that dropping the bagel and having to pick it up is another dreadful task and is just the beginning of another dreadful day. I agree with Katie's situation of a man who is stressed out about being late and falls over and laughs at himself. I picture a stout, old, balled man who is "bent low, gritting my teeth", and "doubled over". Once he realizes that the "faster and faster it rolled", he becomes determined to get the bagel back. With silly and childish phrases like "head over heels", "somersault", and "strangely happy", he feels like a little kid again. That he is "strangely happy" indicates his surprise that he could feel that way again.
ReplyDeleteThe bagel is a whimsical and carefree poem that documents a child's experience with a bagel. The very simple diction suggest this poem is from the point of view of a young child with words such as "rolling away", "running" and "somersault". Since it is a child, the bagel seems of utmost importance to him and still wants to eat it even though he dropped it. After being "annoyed" with himself, the tone of the poem shifts to a whimsical one that is similar to the way a small child would tell an exaggerated story to an adult. It sort of reminded me of how my sister tells made up stories that make absolutely no sense whatsoever. He explains how he "rolls down the street" and does one somersault after another. It is very unlikely that any of these things actually happened, but the child is just running with his imagination and making things up as he goes along.
ReplyDeleteThis poem focuses on the carefree life of a child, and how they they are completely willing to spend their time chasing a bagel. The bagel is a representation of how life goes on, as it is a complete circle that is never ending. This suggests that childhood is forever. Carefree diction is used to signify the simplicity of the child's mind, such as "rolling away", "wind", and "happy". The idea that it is rolling away suggests that the speaker is chasing after his childhood and does not want to lose it.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the last line of this poem really stood out from the entire poem. The whole poem emphasizes how frustrated he is as he's, "annoyed with [himself]," and runs after the bagel, "gritting [his] teeth," and finding himself, "doubled over. Then the very last line contradicts with the rest of the poem because in the end he is, "strangely happy with [himself.]" The last line has a happier tone because it shows that the speaker just has to look back on what he just did and laugh. It is one of those situations where he felt so pathetic trying so hard to catch a bagel, and getting so mad at himself through the process, that afterwards he just looks back and laughs.
ReplyDeleteOk, not sure how I'm going to salvage this one because it just made me giggle to myself.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is implausible. Typically, a bagel that goes rolling usually stops fairly quickly since it isn't perfectly round and its substance isn't the slickest of materials. Also the image of a person rolling in somersaults after a bagel seems surreal as well.
Even the emotions are exagerrated. Usually, when someone drops a bagel, it's by accident and you usually try to scramble to pick it up. Instead, the bagel is dropped as if it were a "portent"... something evil. I don't think that the average person would think about their bagel this way.
This is reminiscent of childhood because children tend to have the ability to make anything seem real, and have the imagination to believe anything that they want, even if it's rolling after a bagel. Children also have the ability to be incredibly dramatic and to stretch the truth.