The Bagel

On its surface, “The Bagel” is a humorous 13-line poem about chasing a rolling bagel down the street. Ignatow’s language is simple and straightforward. However, his deliberate use of poetic technique and metaphor allow for more in-depth meaning. “The Bagel” is composed of only two sentences. The first sentence, Lines 1-5, presents the problem—the dropping of the bagel and how the narrator feels about this accident. The second sentence, Lines 6-13, discusses the consequences of the event and makes an imaginative leap as the speaker correlates themself with the fugitive piece of bread.

The poem begins with a matter of fact statement: “I stopped to pick up the bagel” (Line 1). The only information revealed is that the speaker is retrieving their item. Depending on the reader’s impression, the line can be interpreted as the speaker “stopped” to “pick up” (Line 1) a bagel from a shop. Alternately, they are “pick[ing] up” (Line 1) the bagel from a counter, a stand, or from the ground. Given that bagels are a traditional Jewish bread product—and Jewish people tended to immigrate to larger cities—the reader may also get the sense of an urban environment from the poem just with the first line, long before Ignatow later mentions “the street” (Line 10).

The speaker explains that the bagel has indeed been dropped on ground as it is now “rolling away in the wind” (Line 2). The line establishes an outdoor location as the bagel careens away “in the wind” (Line 2). Finally, this description contrasts the stillness of the speaker—who has “stopped” (Line 1)—with the motion of the bagel, which is going “away” (Line 2) from the speaker. This suggests that the speaker has lost control of the bagel, which is propelled by the “wind” (Line 2). The bagel’s escape is out of the speaker’s hands.

Accordingly, the speaker is “annoyed with [themself]” (Line 3). These three words appear alone on a line, enhancing the emotional state of the speaker. The isolation shows the intensity of self-blame. The speaker clarifies in the next line that their annoyance is due to “having dropped” (Line 4) the bagel. Yet, because the emotional state is given its own weight on a single line, the feeling is greater than its casual placement in the sentence as a whole. If the speaker had not dropped the bagel, they would not feel exasperated. Ignatow presents the feeling of blame many people have when making a simple error.

The speaker again assails themself as they consider the dropped bagel “as if it were a portent” (Line 5). A portent is a sign or a warning that something monumentally bad is likely to happen. Something as simple as a dropped bagel can make one feel that their day is ruined, or a further calamity is about to occur. Ignatow noted to interviewer Gary Pacernick that the bagel was “a token of […] hope.” At this point in the poem, such hope seems to be flying out of reach. The bagel reels “faster and faster” (Line 6), almost as if it has a mind of its own and intends to leave the speaker behind.

There is an important shift in the poem here as the speaker is suddenly inspired to move. They turn from a static “stopped” (Line 1) state, to watching the bagel “rolling away” (Line 2), to actively “running after it” (Line 7). This section of the poem does two things. First, the bagel’s worth as food becomes secondary to the experience of the pursuit. Second, its increasing speed signals the surreal imagery in the following lines. The speaker exerts themself to the point of being “bent low” (Line 8) and “gritting [their] teeth” (Line 8). They move into an almost primal state, becoming fierce and animalistic until they’re “doubled over” (Line 9). To double over usually means to bend in pain, or because after physical exertion, one must pause to breathe. The line— “and I found myself doubled over” (Line 9)—suggests the speaker feels too much pain to continue and has again “stopped” (Line 1). Line 9 is a second instance of Ignatow’s use of line breaks and enjambment—the continuation of a thought from one line to the next sans end stop punctuation—to center readers’ attention on pain.

Line 9 continues into Line 10 and surprises the reader. The narrator has “doubled-over” (Line 9) to start “rolling down the street” (Line 10)—not because they are in pain. This is not defeat, but transformation. The surreal image of the narrator starting to roll “head over heels” (Line 11) in “one complete somersault” (Line 11) suddenly places the earnest pursuit in a fanciful realm. Since “head over heels” (Line 11) is often used to describe love, this wording also changes the emotions from annoyance and pain to something much more pleasant. This is especially increased when the speaker’s somersaults occur one “after another” (Line 12). The speaker compares their actions to being “like a bagel” (Line 12) as they are round and complete. The formerly “annoyed” (Line 3) speaker feels “strangely happy with [themself]” (Line 13). The goal is not, the speaker suggests, to catch the runaway bagel, but to engage fully in the pursuit: to become that which is pursued. In other words, the reward is the process itself.

The poem contains multiple meanings. Ignatow mentioned that the poem was created to capture a personal moment of despair, when the world seemed to offer little chance for emotional escape. He felt swallowed by his working life and was pursuing things to no known purpose. If, as Ignatow suggests, the bagel is a token of hope, hope moves from a metaphorical representation by the bread to being embodied by the speaker. The speaker becomes the very hope they seek. Poet Robert Bly also suggested that the poem represents a “good-hearted tribute” to the Jewish people, with the bagel representing Jewish heritage. In this case, the speaker’s transformation suggests that heritage is not something that can be lost but is instead taken into oneself until it becomes the soul’s essential ingredient. With these multiple interpretations, “The Bagel” is a poem that is humorous, heart-felt, universal, and culturally important all at once.