The lyrics were written by the drummer and primary lyricist
Neil Peart. The title was inspired by a "
dysentery dream" he had while touring
West Africa on his bicycle in 1988. Peart's book
The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa includes a chapter entitled "The Larger Bowl" in which he describes the dream. The excerpt in which he mentions the song is as follows: Anyway... a song was playing in the store, a plaintive ballad called "The Larger Bowl." Something about loneliness and the misfortunes of life, I recall. No such song as far as I know, but I like the title. In the early 1990s, Peart put words to the title. The song is written in the form of a
pantoum. ==See also==