Home Baked Bread Sally Croft

The poem “Home-Baked Bread” is a play on words. The title sounds wholesome and gives the impression of a cozy environment with a homemade feel but as you read on it sounds like a woman that is weaving a web of sensual pleasures. Croft puts together a play on words that strikes the imagination with touch and smell. The words say one thing but mean another. It was almost as if she used her metaphoric phases with food. For example when she writes “I have prepared a cunning triumph” this is describing some sort of victory that someone has set out to achieve.

If looked at a bit closely it can be perceived that the goal is to win over or in better words get what she wanted with an old recipe passed on from her Great Aunt. “Spices and herbs sealed in a porcelain jar” sounds like some sort of love spell that she intends to cast. It gives the impression that it has begun to work on her intent when she goes on to write “Come, rest your feet. In that line she gives the person a sense of relaxation, pleasure. I’ll make you tea with honey and slices of warm bread spread with peach butter”.

This next line she setting a soothing and calm place by offering tea and honey. This makes one wonder if her intent is beginning to surrender and unable to resist the invitation of her affection. She seems to be very in touch with what she wants and she insists on getting what she needs from the other individual with sweet smells and soft gentle touch. Those 2 senses are the most active when dealing with feeling and emotions. When reading this poem, descriptions of how the heat rises from the bread makes for a welcoming environment that declares something warm and toasty.

She relays a message that not only does the sight of the warm bread look good but it smells delicious. Thinking of how the rising of fresh bread my look or even smell gives another warm and fuzzy sensation. This poem goes on to describe an upstairs bedroom that later she invites her intent into. The bedroom is described with the overflow of sunlight that pours into the room and “lies like honey on the floor” (24) and an open window with the fragrance of peaches that flood through and envelopes with its fresh smell.