Second poem. I know that these are SHORT, but I want all of you to work on literary analysis, so push yourselves to discuss these more deeply. Choose one device (tone, diction, imagery, theme, etc) and discuss it. You can respond to each other, too.
You Fit Into Me
by Margaret Atwood
you fit into me
like a hook into an eye
a fish hook
an open eye
The second part is obviously not very romantic, and the only thing i could find about "hook into an eye" in the first part is a type of latch. The eye could be something that was made for the hook, so the hook and the eye coming together could be some sort of purpose being achieved.
ReplyDeleteI found that too. My mom said that it could also be referring to a button hook, which was a perfect fit with the eye in a button, like on clothing. The second part is referring to the pain and blindness that occurs when a fish hook enters your eye I think. The narrator could be saying that although they fit together perfectly, they cause each other so much pain and blindness to the world that they don't notice it. Or maybe not. Its just a hunch.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is very interesting to me. In the first two lines, Atwood is talking about a natural, good-natured relationship she has with an unknown person. The hook and eye latch symbolizes this very well. Both are made for each other and naturally belong together. The next two lines struck me as much different. Atwood compares her relationship with this person to a fish hook being stabbed through a fish's eye. This much more violent description caused me to change my ideas. I believe the fish hook and fish eye are again symbolic for the author's relationship. However, it caused me to believe thatshe doesn't detest the unknown person, but she doesn't like the person as much as I initially thought. My reasoning behind this is the fact that a fish hook and a fish eye still fit together well, but this comparison has a rather negative connotation.
ReplyDeleteThis poem shows that love can be painful. It shows the imagery of a hook and eye fitting together perfectly but also being very painful.
ReplyDeleteLike previously mentioned the first two lines sound like some fake rehearsed love speech while the next lines are quite alarming. What I took away from this is that Margret Atwood is telling her significant other that the only way their love is like a hook and eye is if it is a fish hook and an open eye. I searched online to see what a fish hook in an eye looks like. It is not pretty. The imagery in this poem stands out to me because at first it feels loving and harmonic but then it sounds gruesome and horrifying.
ReplyDeleteThe speaker is talking about a painful relationship she is currently in. Since the speaker is addressing her partner, I have the feeling that her significant other is unaware of the damage they are causing. The first two lines lead the reader to believe that the poem is about a well matched, positive relationship. The clasp of a garment provides appealing imagery of comfort and harmony found between the pair. Once the meaning of "eye" and "hook" are clarified, however, the poem takes on a completely different meaning. The depiction of a fish hook latching itself into an open eye is very appalling, consequently conveying a strong message of frustration and bitterness.
ReplyDeleteI think the poem is about a nice lovely relationship (how they're meant for each other "Like a hook into an eye") that suddenly becomes all dark and brutal (Atwood resembled the relationship as a fish hook stabbing an eye).
ReplyDeleteI have only been fishing once, but that is enough to tell me how misleading this poem is. The first idea that comes to mind when you say "eye" is that of a human eye, however, an eye is something a hook clasps into. In other words, a hook, like the first stanza of the poem suggests, is meant to perfectly fit an eye. Taking this into consideration, reading the poem again reveals the wonders of true love, for the two lovers are perfectly made for each other and incomplete without.
ReplyDeleteThe first two lines give the notion that they are meant to be romantic. The hook fits into the eye as though they are meant for each other. The last two lines are eminently different because it gives a specific definition or meaning of the words "hook" and "eye." The poem's look also contributes to the meaning of the poem. The first two lines are separated from the last two, which gives the reader a hint of how distant they are from each other.
ReplyDeleteThe first two lines indicate romance, as if the people in the relationship are made for each other. A fish hook is used when one is fishing, its used to catch fish. "a fish hook an open eye," quickly changes the mood of the poem from romantic to brutal. The first line indicates that the relationship between these two people would be positive and happy. However, the last line shows that the the relationship is brutal and deadly.
ReplyDeleteThe first part of the poem is a happy and positive way of the love relationship. The two people are represented by a "hook" and an "eye," which are two things that clearly fit together.The second part is more of a tragedy and reveals the relationship between the two people is helpless and painful. In the last part, the two people are represented by a "fish hook" and "an open eye," which are two things that do not go together and cause pain.
ReplyDeleteThe beginning of the poem makes me think that its a sweet, romantic poem. But when I read the last two lines, my opinion changed really quickly. Since this poem is very short, I wasn't really disappointed that the mood changed so fast, but it was still kind of annoying. I think the poet is trying to describe a romantic relationship that went wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe diction in the poem is simple, and makes it sound romantic. We al know what those words mean, but there's more to it. From what I've researched about the whole hook and eye is that it's the opposite of romance. Maybe the author feels trapped with a person she does not love who possibly hurts her, and maybe the relationship is over and thats why the poem is short, just like the relationship.
ReplyDeleteThe beginning of the poem sounded really sweet, but then the second part of the poem kind of took me aback a little. Atwood is talking about how realatinships can be good and happy,but at the same time they can hurt and cause you pain.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is messed up. At first the mood is romantic and cute. It puts an image in my head of a cute couple fishing or something. Until the mood changes into something to opposite and dark. At first the reader might think the first two lines were meant figuratively. The phrase "hook into an eye" means a clasp into a hole for clothing. Looking at the literal meaning or the second stanza, some may see an open eye with a hook in it. Looking at it figuratively speaking using the definition of a clasp and hole, some many view it as a clasp unhooked. These are different perspectives that may be determined on how the reader looks at it.
ReplyDeleteThis poem shows how painful love can be. What was once a perfect fit, is now painful and detrimental to keep together.
ReplyDeleteIt can also be interpreted that the imagery of separating the two stanzas, provides each partner's thoughts about their relationship. One person thinks their love is amazing and perfect, and the other thinks the complete opposite. Taking this into thought, the separation of the stanzas also provides the image that they are detached from each other.
It's interesting that the first stanza is structured into a sentence that is grammatically correct, and the second, being two fragments not containing a verb, is phrased as a bit of an afterthought. When I try to visualize what this would sound like, it seems as though the narrator (not the author) would not want the audience to focus on this, as though he or she wants to keep it a secret or simply doesn't want to admit it. This certainly adds to the idea that the relationship being described is not nearly as healthy as the first stanza would imply. That said, there's always the fact that the second stanza adds the image of an open eye being stabbed out by a hook, which totally isn't implying this well enough.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is not the stereotypical love poem. Instead this poem provides a perspective of the pain and discomfort relationships can cause. Although these two fit together perfectly, their relationship causes pain and suffering. The similes used provide a comparison which expresses this suffering.
ReplyDeleteThis poem confuses me because of its vagueness. It seems like it has to do with love and the pain of love. It's like the author is saying that someone he saw "caught" his eye/ attention, but the pain of seeing them is like a fish hook is in his eye.
ReplyDeleteThis poem's title shows that it is probably a love poem. It gives a common saying in the first stanza but in the next stanza it breaks it up literally. The shift in this poem is very noticeable due to the form of it; the poem has an identifiable space in between the stanzas which dramatizes the change. The first part of the poem shows perfect love but after the spacing it describes a literal perspective of what was said in the first part of the poem which shows pain. If you combine both of those ideas you get the theme which is love hurts.
ReplyDeleteSince the imagery of the second stanza is quite painful, perhaps this poem is not about love but rather hate.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to make a prediction on what this poem is about, but I kind of had to anyways. I think the first part is about someone( mostly a man because they are scavengers) saw a beautiful/ handsome person and became infatuated with them. The second part is like a rejection because it stabs a person's heart( metaphorically).
ReplyDeleteThe simple diction Atwood uses still gives the poem a very strong tone. In the first two lines of this poem, the author makes the readers seem like it is going to be a very happy love poem, only to find out the next two lines complete change how you look at it. It becomes tragic and makes the tone of the poem becomes pain and disappointment because it shows the authors true feelings of the relationship she is in.
ReplyDeleteThe first stanza of this poem made me feel whole and made me feel like this poem has a positive context. When I read the next stanza it felt more like a description to me. I'm agreeing with Tom when I say it is almost like an after thought. She yearns to fit into this person comfortably, but when she realizes she doesn't, or cant, have this, maybe she feels that she must explain to her readers that she is not talking about the hook and eye clasp found on bras, she's talking about a fish hook going into her open eye, masking her sight from seeing what is happening right in front of her (obviously something bad in the relationship). She is either blind to this or would rather hurt and pretend she's blind to it because maybe, just maybe, one day they can live in harmony. The speaker knows that maybe it is not working out, but maybe she fears that if she says it out loud, it will come true, so she writes it down for the readers, so they know and so she does not mislead them like she misleads her heart.
ReplyDeleteI know there are probably a billion grammatical errors, please don't kill me, I'm not good with words. Plus this site has no auto-correct. I blame global warming.
DeleteThe way Atwood writes the first two lines, then elaborates on the imagery presented in them seems almost like a clarification, as if the speaker is adding the information on to let the reader know that it isn't like it first seems. The lack of punctuation seems to present a feeling of uncertainty or perhaps a feeling of not being complete. The way the letters are all lowercase except for in the title also seem to be a little bit hesitant, uncertain, like the punctuation, or maybe not very confident after the initial idea presented in the title, which is capitalized (and is a complete sentence, like Tom said).
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read the poem I didn't understand it because it is so vague. After you read the first two lines, you feel its going to be a love poem but the next lines, it ends up being a dark poem. It has basic diction but it has a forceful mood and tone and thats what makes it so great.
ReplyDeleteThe first lines are confusing but the hook and eye make it seem like a romantice poem but the ending lines change the direction of the whole poem. The fish hook and eye take the poem to a dark and ominous place. The diction is great because it decieves the reader in the first two lines.
ReplyDeleteAt first i thought it was about love, but after you read the end of the poem it seems dark.
ReplyDeleteI found it very interesting how the imagery in this poem takes a very sharp turn, very quickly. Beginning somewhat as a light love poem in the first two lines, the idea of "fitt[ing] in to me" sparks a romantic tone. An image of a simple hook and eye clasp on a piece of jewelry comes to mind; something very simple and innocent. And then, the poem takes a darker turn. A fish hook brings up a more violent image. The hook is now being portrayed as a weapon rather than a symbol of love. The closing line of "an open eye" shows a shift from the innocence of a clasp to the horrifying image of an eyeball possibly being impaled.
ReplyDeleteThis pome is very interesting it seams to have a romantic start with a dark turn at the end. This work had great diction that adds a whole additional layer of meaning to it. The word "eye" was added twice which leads me to believe that it is an important word. As I looked into the meaning of "eye" more I found some interesting stuff in the thesaurus. Branching off of the word "eye" there are words like "attention, heart, center, hole, judgment and optic". These words all got me thinking that maybe the author was telling us how they misjudged a person they loved this person gave the author the allusion that they actually cared about their feelings when in the end they just made a hole in their heart.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I don't understand this poem. The title makes me think of love, like soulmates or true love, but then the second stanza is dark and not at all about love. The words paint a very creepy image by describing a fish hook in an eye. I thought at first that it could have been a play on words, maybe the eye is the eye of a sewing needle or something, but that didn't make sense either. I like how the poem is so simple and the shift is so dramatic, but I think that it may be too simple and too dramatic because I lost whatever meaning the poem has in the process of trying to figure out what was happening in this poem.
ReplyDeletethe first two lines place an imagery of a romantic poem using a reference to a common hook fitting into an eye to express the relationship between two people in the poem. the author then corrects herself acknowledging their relationship is not like a simple hook and eye but placing an image of a violent and abusive relationship referencing a fish hook and an open eye.
ReplyDeleteI believe that because this poem is so short the shift has a bigger emphasis. A fish and hook in the first stanza is saying they fit together like a button. Then the clarification of a fish hook into an open eye makes their relationship seem hostile and abusive because the open eye or the speaker is victimized by the fish hook or the other person in the relationship.
ReplyDeleteThe theme of this story is that love is hard and it is worth it to go through trouble for it. This poem depicts two types of relationship, possibly both in the same relationship, one ideal relationship where the two complete each other and another where it is quite the opposite and they don't seem right for each other at all. Sometimes, someone is willing to go through that kind of pain for the person they love.
ReplyDeleteThe poem seems romantic at first, but when you get to the last two lines it is almost the opposite of the first two lines. The writer made the poem short to demonstrate how love can be perfect and then quickly change into pain. It also makes the poem straight to the point and makes it more dramatic. The poem uses repetition of the words hook, and eye to show how two things can represent complete opposites of each other.
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ReplyDeleteThe title,"You Fit Into Me" portrays to be a romantic poem. She purposely undermines the reader's expectation. To the author, this feels like a fish hook through the eye. A fish hook is designed precisely to go through a fish, not necessarily through the eye. Normally, a fish would take the hook through the mouth. The author seems to be suggesting that "you" was designed to affect her in this way. Also, the repetition of the last lines suggests that the author wanted the image (a fish hook/ an open eye) to be clear in the poem. She is captured through the eye-- through sight. Maybe the "you" is so precious, the poet cannot look away. Looks pretty painful.
ReplyDeleteThis poem gets to the point quickly. It starts by saying they fit together like a hook and an eye, which sounds good. Then, it is revealed that it is a fish hook and an open eye. I interpreted this as a metaphor for a failed romantic relationship. There was probably some sort of deception involved (the fish going for the bait and getting hooked). Clearly the "fish" was hooked and hurt by the other person, leading to the hook into the eye. This poem describes the author's tough relationship with someone else. However, she has been hooked, as referenced by the title, and can't let go.
ReplyDeleteIn the first two lines, the poem seems pleasant and romantic, but as soon as you read the second stanza, the tone completely changes. In the second stanza, the author says "a fish hook" and "an open eye", which provides an extremely violent image. These lines change the poem from romantic to violent.
ReplyDeleteThe speaker's concise and direct diction gives the reader a simple and clear mental image. First, a hook and a latch comfortably and naturally linked together. Next, a gory image of a barbed rusty hook piercing an eyeball. At this second stanza, the tone becomes bitter and resentful. It seems like the author or speaker's relationship left a bad taste in her mouth, and this poem could even be perceived as sarcastic in the way that a "not" joke is sarcastic.
ReplyDeleteAs most of the others said, this poem begins with a romantic tone, and even alludes (possibly) to the removal of a bra, (hook and eye -- the type found on a bra). But then quickly takes a turn towards the style of Ms. Prodromo and gives us a disgusting image of a fish hook going into an oepn eye. Presumably, this means that the person they are talking about is a bad thing to them, not a good thing, and this poem is definitely NOT about happy love.
ReplyDeleteThe theme of this poem is blood. Gore, flesh being torn, family, loved ones(like family friends) all of those tie into the meaning of blood. The line "a fish hook in an open eye" paraphrases to an iron, curved fish hook being thrusted into an eyeball (similar to how Oedipus Rex does in the play "Oedipus Rex") only this time it could be a non-human species. The narrator is professing he feels that the person he is addressing has a connection with him the is very dramatic, but loose/easy-fitting. The poem doesn't specify whether the fish hook is inserted into a delibreate part of the eye (i.e.pupil, cornicus, white part, colored part; you know what I mean), otherwise I would go into mad detail about the speaker's exact percisionness and locating choice. The poem is much better than the last "poem", so thanks ma homie P!!
ReplyDeleteI think the poem is romantic at first but then turns dark.
ReplyDeletei think the poem starts out romantic but then turns dark
ReplyDeleteI think this poem says that love can be painful especially in the beginning of the poem where it says how a hook fits into an open eye. I don't think it is very romantic because the imagery that this poem makes. It is more of a gross and disgusting way to describe some type of love.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't like a fish hook in my eye.
ReplyDeleteWould an eyeball bleed if a fishhook went into it?
ReplyDeleteThe connotation of a hook implies one of these people is stuck in the relationship, unable to leave. Like a fish hook who goes in smoothly but then catches and tries to leave (but is unable to) when the pressure is on.
ReplyDeleteThe first line didn't exactly make sense to me at first: "a hook into an eye." What does that mean? Sounds kind of romantic I guess...like maybe she's saying this person is her other half? Kind of romantic, but the second part changes tone when she clarifies with: "a hook into a fish eye." She is now saying that she doesn't like this person and she is stuck in the relationship. This is a very funny poem after looking at the connotation of both lines.
ReplyDeleteWhy won't my comments publish? :) This is getting on my nerves.
ReplyDeleteI think this poem is about a relationship where one person is being dragged into, or along. This person doesn't want to be in the relationship and feels as though he/she is hooked and forced to stay in the relationship.
Personally being hooked like a fish hook in a relationship is not my first choice. I would rather willingly be hooked.
This poem makes me think of an actual eye and a hook. That's pretty gruesome. Maybe the narrator was talking about having a painful relationship with someone but she still loves him/her anyway. I don't think the poem sounds romantic at all.
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