Marked With D. Poem by Tony Harrison

Nicely done.

It's a nursery rhyme: Bake me a cake, baker's man.....Roll it and pat it and mark it with B (baby) or (D) dad..... The second line as fast as you can may be an ironic comment on the poem, the pressure on the baker to work hard. But mostly, besides the irony, the poem bespeaks love,

What does the title mean?

His Father was a baker who found it difficult to put his feelings into words - 'he hungered for release from mortal speech/that kept him down'. The baker motif is used throughout the poem. 'When the chilled dough of his flesh went in the oven' - well, a corpse' is like chilled dough, and a cremating oven is like a baker's oven, so he's being accurate if a little too descriptive as with the eyes. 'the baker's man that no one will see rise' - as yeasted dough rises. His father's ashes ('not unlike flour') are enough 'for one small loaf'. Emotionally upsetting as the imagery is, the poet makes us see what we don't want to see.

Last four lines missing here: The baker's man that no one will see rise and England made to feel like some dull oaf is smoke, enough to sting one person's eyes and ash (not unlike flour) for one small loaf.