17 pages • 34 minutes read
David IgnatowThe Bagel
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1968A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Bagel
The most clear symbol of the poem is named in the title: the bagel. Ignatow described the bagel as a personal “token of his hope” for a more expansive life from which he felt curtailed at the time of writing the poem in 1964. Others have seen the bagel as the absurdity life entails as people often pursue things that do not truly matter. Some have seen the bagel as the quest of the working-class man to break from the exhausting routine of urban hustle and bustle. Interviewer Gary Pacernick indicates that he sees the bagel as a symbol for the feminine side of the self, for which the masculine must quest before becoming whole. Others, like poet Robert Bly, concluded that due to its noted commonality as a Jewish food, the bagel symbolizes the Jewish community. In this reading, the dropping of the bagel, the speaker’s subsequent need to retrieve it, and their symbolically becoming the bagel all function to exhibit assimilation. Becoming the bagel is a way for the speaker to internalize their Jewishness rather to look for it beyond themself where it is inevitably lost.
The Urban Street
Location is brought to the forefront as the speaker loses then chases the bagel. The bagel’s escape takes place outside as it’s “rolling down the street” (Line 10). This, along with the obvious accessibility to Jewish food, indicates the likely location of the poem as a city. Ignatow’s famous devotion to New York City, along with his residence there in 1964 when the poem was written, may subliminally imply the commotion of a large metropolitan area. The poem asks how one gets along in that hustle and bustle.
The urban street also serves as symbolic notation of the journeys the bagel (literally) and the speaker (figuratively) take. Streets connect places and both the bagel and the speaker travel from a point where they have initially “dropped” (Line 4) and “stopped” (Line 1). The speaker’s rush to fix their mistake of dropping the bagel, in conjunction with their feelings of self-blame, show that they are on the wrong road at the beginning. “[A]nnoyed” (Line 3) and dismayed, the speaker initially feels that if they catch the bagel, they will correct the situation. However, Ignatow shows that self-blame gets one nowhere because the goal of retrieving the runaway bagel can never be reached as it will always keep rolling. Even if caught, the bagel now has no useful function, as it is covered with the grime of the street and can no longer be eaten. However, one may learn to find joy in the journey, as the speaker “[rolls] down the street” (Line 10), becoming “strangely happy” (Line 13) and accepting their inevitable journey as the wrong road becomes the right one.
Head Over Heels
Prior to the use of “head over heels” in Line 11, the physicality of the speaker’s journey is more panicked and painful. The speaker follows the bagel as it rolls “faster and faster” (Line 6). Ignatow’s description shows the speaker “running after it / bent low, gritting [their] teeth, and [they] found [themself] doubled over” (Lines 7-9). This suggests extreme exertion and exhaustion. However, when Ignatow clarifies that the speaker has actually “doubled over” (Line 9) to roll “down the street” (Line 10) in one “somersault / after another” (Lines 11-12), the poem’s tone shifts to joyful. The speaker becomes “strangely happy” (Line 13). This tonal shift hinges on the phrase “head over heels” (Line 11), which equates with the doubling over of the somersaulting motion. The phrase initially functions as another way to clarify how the speaker’s movements are circular “like a bagel” (Line 12). However, “head over heels,” is also a phrase commonly used to describe falling madly in love. Ignatow intentionally uses this phrase to emotionally emphasize that it is the speaker’s falling in love with the process of rolling—or living life—that allows him to eventually feel “strangely happy” (Line 13).
