Introduction

In "All Bread," Margaret Atwood explores the journey of bread from its humble origins to its significance in human life. As a renowned Canadian poet, novelist, and essayist, Atwood is celebrated for her insightful exploration of human experiences and the natural world. Her works often blend elements of realism with allegory, inviting readers to contemplate deeper meanings lurking beneath the surface.

In this short poem, Atwood dismantles bread, a seemingly ordinary food, revealing its subtle significance and connection to life and the natural world. This poem compels readers to confront the unseen processes behind ordinary food and to appreciate the complex web that links humanity to the earth.

Plot Summary

The first of the poem's four stanzas opens with a description of the raw materials that go into making bread, such as wood, cow dung, moss, and the decomposing remnants of wild animals. The list contains more than the flour, water, and yeast commonly thought of as the ingredients of bread. Instead, it includes the elements that make bread possible. The speaker suggests that these seemingly unappetizing elements all contribute to the soil that nourishes the grain.

Yet, these materials do not create bread on their own. Human effort is needed. The image of the axe chopping for "nine strokes" emphasizes the physical labor required to prepare the land. Water, described as the "first gift," highlights its importance in sustaining life. This transformation of raw materials into bread is not just a mechanical process; it also involves a kind of alchemy wherein basic components become sustenance.

In the second stanza, the speaker introduces themes of sacrifice and nourishment. The dough rests under a "moist cloth," almost like a burial, before being placed in a "silver dish"—perhaps a baking pan. The description of the "row of white famine bellies" refers to the dough rising in the oven, with the heat from the "old sun" mimicking the sun's role in growing the grain.

Now that the bread has been baked and is ready to eat, the third stanza explores the taste of the bread itself. The poem's speaker suggests that good bread carries the "salt taste" of one's sweat from chopping wood. Such a description links the physical effort described in the first stanza to the final product of the freshly baked loaf of bread. The phrase "smells of its own small death" could refer to the transformation of the grain during baking, where the raw ingredients change to become something new. This, along with the line "deaths before and after," hints at the cycle of life and death that sustains all living plants and creatures.

In the fourth—and final—stanza, the poem takes a more philosophical turn. Eating bread is described as consuming "ashes," a symbolic reference to the return of all living things to the earth after death. By understanding this journey, readers may become more aware of what they consume.

The poem concludes with a powerful image: "Together we eat this earth." The vivid, unconventional framing reminds readers that all life is born from the earth to which it must someday return. Furthermore, the act of breaking bread becomes a symbolic gesture of communion. It links individuals to each other and to the earth from which it derives.