Great Regulars: Received history speaks of ancient people

who buried their most prized possessions with the bodies of the dead. Thus the speaker in Kenyon's poem claims, "Like primitives we buried the cat/with his bowl."

Then the speaker says that with bare hands they covered the cat with "sand and gravel."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Jane Kenyon's 'The Blue Bowl'

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The speaker then becomes clairvoyant, prognosticating, "When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie/Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by." The speaker has shown absolutely no examples of the "ordeals [the aunt] was mastered by." She is preaching to the choir of other feminists and their dupes who have bought into the notion that "marriage" is slavery, and all men are patriarchal slave-masters.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Rich's 'Aunt Jennifer's Tigers'

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The speaker then queries, "Why should he even care that others cause calamity by their lifeless imitations?"

The speaker is aware that the poetasters will always be there, pouring forth their dreck and doggerel. And although he is especially proud of his own talent, he fashions his criticism from a point of view of one who is harmed by these scoundrels.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 67

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The shallowness of copycat poetasters is an abomination just as are grave robbers who steal hair from the dead to fashion into wigs. The "second life" of that hair that well suited its original owner becomes an unnatural prop, not an outgrowth of beauty.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 68

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The speaker then reports, "A glass of ice-water/Keeps me company." He subtly lets the reader know that he is alone, which might account for the seemingly long wait he is experiencing and perhaps the illusion that it has grown darker outside. The stereotypically solo diner is often ridiculed or pitied, so much so that many people will go out of their way to make sure they have at least one dining companion.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Simic's 'The Partial Explanation'

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