"The Joy of Cooking" by Elaine Magarrell

     The speaker in "The Joy of Cooking" by Elaine Magarrell, discusses her siblings more than her actual brother and sister.  The poem is actually not about cooking at all, at least in the domestic sense.  Magarrell uses imagery to profess her opinions about her siblings.  She believes that her sister talks too much and her brother is not generous and kind.  She disguises these beliefs in the her poem.  She describes her sister as a "tongue" and her bother's heart as, "...and needs an apple-onion stuffing to make it interesting at all," (Magarrell).  She points out what she believes to be their flaws through the images.  The image of the talking promotes a gross or disgusting view of her talking.  The firm and dry heart reference gives a negative outlook on her brother.  She may have disguised these traits in the poems to avoid telling her siblings what she really thinks about them.