Week #12—Sign Inventory

             BOWL, IN THE SHAPE OF

                  A BRISTOL BOAT

                        by Jehanne Dubrow

He carved the bowl for her, a hull so small

            it floated in the ocean of her palm,

rocked when she breathed, held still when she was still,

its body, purpleheart and maple,

            sanded and polished, sanded and rubbed until

the grain became a topographic map

by which to chart itself. The wooden bowl

            pushed forward, billowed a nonexistent sail.

No rudder guiding it, no mast or wheel.

The world was split between her hand and all

            the latitudes that lay beyond her hand—

a kitchen tabletop, a bookshelf filled

with Kant and Aristotle, a windowsill.

            He built the shell for her, as if to show

she was still water, and then the waterfall.

Narrative in third person voice

five stanzas of triplets with second line indented

seven lines of enjambment, proper punctuation

alliteration of ‘b’ in title, 'h' in "her hand," 'w' in last line

assonance in “hull” and “small,” “shell” and “show,”

like vowel sounds in “small” and “palm”

end rhymes of “still” with “until,” “filled” and “windowsill;”

also, “small” with “all” and “waterfall.”

repetition of “still,” “sanded,” “hand,” “water” and “waterfall”

metaphors: “ocean of her palm,” “the grain became a topographic map,”

“the world was split,” and “she was still water and…waterfall.”

Reference to modern philosopher “Kant” and old world “Aristotle”

“purpleheart” implies military bravery

use of ship/military language to describe a wooden bowl melds sailor’s world with the woman's world

landlubber language of “bowl,” “kitchen tabletop,” and “bookshelf”

Poem’s theme of love intimated through act of building a wooden bowl