The Cinnamon Peeler

Michael Ondaatje is the author of the poem “The Cinnamon Peeler.” First published in his fictionalized memoir, Running in the Family (1982), Ondaatje republished the poem in his poetry collection Secular Love (1984), and the poem is one of many that comprises the final section, titled “Skin Boat.” Ondaatje is a Canadian citizen who lived in England and was born in Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka—a former English colony famous for its cinnamon (Ceylon cinnamon).

The poem alludes to Ondaatje’s home country and his marriage to Kim Jones, with the poem’s speaker likely representing Ondaatje himself. While Ondaatje was working on the poem, his marriage was disintegrating, as Ondaatje had begun an affair with the Canadian writer and editor Linda Spalding. The poem is a lyric—a type of poem that is typically short in length and conveys, sometimes with songlike qualities, the poet or speaker’s personal feelings—and, as with a fair amount of contemporary poetry, is in free verse, meaning that it does not adhere to a regular metrical pattern and more closely resembles natural speech. The main messages revolve around the formidable strength of desire and its possessive, all-consuming aspects.

Though Ondaatje is an award-winning poet, he’s likely best known for his novel The English Patient (1992), which became an Oscar-winning film in 1996. Nevertheless, “The Cinnamon Peeler” is probably Ondaatje’s most famous poem, and it serves as the title for his 1991 collection of selected poetry.

Poet Biography

Michael Ondaatje was born in 1943 in Colombo, the capital of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). A former colony of Portugal, the Netherlands, and England, Sri Lanka is known for its tea and cinnamon. A mix of Tamil, Sinhalese, and Dutch, Ondaatje might have been a member of the well-off Burgher people, and he spent his childhood on the Kuttapitiya tea estate before Ceylon gained independence from England and the extensive properties became nationalized. Ondaatje’s father, Mervyn Ondaatje, was a supervisor for a tea plantation and had an addiction to alcohol. His mother, Doris Gratiaen, divorced her husband and moved to England when Ondaatje was five. In the early 1950s, Ondaatje joined his mother, brother, and sister in England. By working at hotels, Gratiaen sent her children to quality schools.

At 19, Ondaatje joined his brother in Canada, and at a university there, he began to write. About a decade later, in the 1960s, he married the artist Kim Jones, who left her husband, Ondaatje’s mentor figure, D. G. Jones. Before the 1980s arrived, Ondaatje left Jones for the writer and editor Linda Spalding. Ondaatje’s personal marriage turmoil manifests in “The Cinnamon Peeler,” as he was working on the poem during his divorce and new marriage.

Ondaatje began his publishing career with poetry. His first book was a collection of poems, The Dainty Monsters (1967), and he followed that up with another collection of poems, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (1970), about the mythic life of the famous American outlaw. In 1973, he published Rat Jelly, and in 1984, he published Secular Love, which features “The Cinnamon Peeler.” However, the poem first appeared in Ondaatje's fictionalized memoir, Running in the Family (1982). Ondaatje also published a fictionalized biography of the jazz musician Bunny Bolden, Coming Through Slaughter (1976). Ondaatje has published more traditional novels, like In the Skin of a Lion (1987) and the source of the 1996 blockbuster hit The English Patient (1992). As Ondaatje’s bibliography suggests, he’s a writer comfortable with experimentation and working in a variety of styles and genres.

Poem Text

Ondaatje, Michael. “The Cinnamon Peeler.” 1982. lyrikline.org.

Summary

In Stanza 1, the speaker addresses a woman and imagines himself as a “cinnamon peeler” (Line 1), someone whose job is to peel the bark from the type of evergreen tree that produces cinnamon. The speaker would “ride” (Line 2) the woman’s bed—alluding to sexual intercourse—and get the cinnamon dust on her pillow.

In Stanzas 2 and 3, the speaker describes the way the woman’s body—“breasts and shoulders” (Line 5)—would always smell like cinnamon. Even people who couldn’t see her would still be able to identify her, and no amount of rain or water could wash away the cinnamon smell. It would remain on her “upper thigh” (Line 12), her back, and her ankle, and people who didn’t know her would call her “the cinnamon peeler’s wife” (Line 18).

In Stanza 4, the speaker pivots from the all-consuming traits of the cinnamon smell to memories of the woman before their marriage. She had a tough family, and the speaker was afraid to even look at her, let alone touch her. To hide his cinnamon smell, he covered his hands in saffron, “smoking tar” (Line 25), and honey.

In Stanzas 5 and 6, the speaker recalls how he and the woman once swam together, and their bodies touched in the water. She couldn’t smell him—was “blind of smell” (Line 30)—but she realized the odorless touching was how he interacted with other women, like “the grass cutter's wife, the lime burner's daughter” (Line 33).

In the final two stanzas, the speaker describes the woman’s discovery that she didn’t want to be “left with no trace” (Line 39) like the nonsexual or undesired women: She wanted his scent. Out of the water, she pressed her stomach to his hands. With her stomach smelling like cinnamon, she cemented their relationship, declaring, “I am the cinnamon / peeler’s wife. Smell me” (Lines 45-46).