Bird's Burbles By Jane Kenyon Analysis

Jane Kenyon addresses the emotional pain that one overcomes when losing a pet in this poem. Most people relate to their pets as their own family, so their lost becomes a terrible feeling. Even though our pets my not be able to communicate with us verbally they always seem to be the best listeners. This poem was nice; as well as a remembrance of the former pet. The tone/mood is typically depressing as well as the speaker’s emotion. The way the poet used diction to create the mood is excellent. You may also notice how the poet isn’t talking about the neighbors, but about the bird. The comparison is more focused on the intrusion of the “bird’s burbles” (Kenyon 14-15) which is ironic in a way, if you think the bird may be happy that the cat is

You may also notice the inverted sentence order to start the poem “Like primitives we buried the cat” (Kenyon 1). Why use this order and why use the word primitives? Also, why would they “Bare-handed scraped sand and gravel back into the hole” (Kenyon

“There are sorrows much keener than these” (Kenyon 10) symbolize the common human need to get back to the normal routines of daily life, even when those routines have been interrupted by death. The list immediately following this statement has “worked, ate, slept,” (Kenyon 11-12) governed by “silent” and with “stared” in between “ate” and “slept”. The center of the list is “ate.” “Silent” and “stared’ are a reminder that beginnings are very discomforting, to say the least. “It stormed all night; now it clears” (Kenyon 12-13) symbolize the return to normality. Kenyon uses the rejection of the dawning of a new day as a final rebuttal of the idea that death is simply forgotten through mourning. However, “like the neighbor who means will/but always says the wrong thing” (Kenyon 15-16) indicates their mourning was not over, and they were in no mood to enjoy the bright melodies of birds just yet. Kenyon is able to use “The Blue Bowl” as a medium for social commentary regarding what she sees as a primitive mourning process that does not help those who undertake it. After careful analyzing the poem, the reader is able to understand Kenyon’s critique of the mourning that humans use to relieve the grief caused by the death of a loved one and interpret the shortcomings that the poet