"I will have my brother's heart,
which is firm and rather dry,
slow cooked."
The Joy of Cooking
While reading this poem, I couldn't help but think of the cookbook The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer, which became a phenomenon in America during the 20th century. The poem and book don't exactly have the same tone, now do they? Anyways, I don't believe Elaine Magarrell was a sick person who cooked her sibling's body parts. Rather, I believe she cooked FOR her sibling's body parts.
The first stanza talks about the ways she must cook foods in order to please her sister's tongue. The second explains what needs to be done to win her brother's heart. Therefore, this poem uses a synecdoche, in which the feelings and whole person of the siblings are referred to as the tongue and heart. This has the effect of causing the reader to realize that the speaker cares greatly about winning over her siblings, and knows what must be done to do so. It also creates a light, amusing manner for the poem as the reader is questioning the sanity of the speaker until the true meaning is discovered.
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