today, i am a poetry critic. tomorrow, who knows.

The Bagel

David Ignatow

I stopped to pick up the bagel
rolling away in the wind,
annoyed with myself
for having dropped it
as if it were a portent.
Faster and faster it rolled,
with me running after it
bent low, gritting my teeth,
and I found myself doubled over
and rolling down the street
head over heels, one complete somersault
after another like a bagel
and strangely happy with myself.

http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/062.html

2. i intially chose this poem because of it's title. i thought it was funny and i always fall for dumb/funny things like that :]

once i read it though i came to like it and i find the last line very nice and interesting.

i also like the vocab, sweet words are always nice.

3. the title is the subject matter of the poem, it's main focus, what it revolves around.

4. the author uses comparison.. personification, kind of...to compare things. for instance, a bagel to wind in line two and a rolling human to a [rolling] bagel in line 11. they influence the poem by making it more vivid and easy for the reader to imagine. the author dosent quite put an emphasis on any particular words, they all seem to bond and flow nicely. although portent seemed to stick out to me. probably because this is the first time i've seen it. it's a neat word.
yes the author (who will be referred to now on as "the a") did focus the readers attention on a image. which was a man running, rolling, and chasing his rambunctious bagel that has accidentally rolled away. the feeling that is created through the poem is frustration at the beginning, determination through the middle and happiness at the end !

5. the tone is bittersweet. the writer succeeds in creating this tone by using serious words like 'portent" and words of frustration like "annoyed" or "gritting my teeth". he uses words like doubled, rolling, or complete somersault to create the image of motion. earlier in the poem, the part that carries a more serioous tone, the sound of the words aren't smooth. if you were to say them they dont pleasantly roll off your tongue, they kind of stumble. take "portent" for example...you have to say it in two chunks. por and tent. dosen't roll like a word like soliloquie... dont think i spelled that right.