You Fit Into Me
You Fit Into Me
Margaret Atwood writes in a vivid, witty and often sharply discomfiting style in all of her literary works. To call her a feminist author is in a way selling her short as her work, while often centered on issues of gender, has also focused on Canadian national identity, Canada's relations with the United States and Europe, human rights issues, environmental issues, and the Canadian wilderness. The poem that I chose to analyze is a very short poem consisting of only four lines titled "You Fit Into Me." It was originally published in Margaret Atwood's anthology Power Politics, but the book I read it in is called, To Hell With Love, which is a collection of poems dealing with heartache and healing after a break-up. As one reads "You Fit Into Me," more and more meaning emerges. Just as a picture is said to be worth a thousand words, a few good lines of verse can pack as much emotional content as a whole paragraph of ordinary prose.
I was 21 years old and had just ended a tumultuous five year relationship with my high school sweetheart the first time I had read the poem. My best friend had given me the book To Hell With Love for Valentine's Day that year so as to alleviate the stress of it being my first Valentine's Day alone since I was 16. After reading the poem, I was taken aback by its length. It was the first time I had ever read a poem that short that actually made sense to me. When a poem only uses a few dozen words, each word becomes extremely important and as soon as I read the poem, every single word was important to me.
The first stanza, "You fit into me/ Like a hook into an eye" (1-2), was like a symbol of the beginning of my relationship. It stood out to me because I am an avid sewer and had instantly thought of an eye hook enclosure. It fits together so perfectly, so smoothly, exactly like we did at first. The second stanza, "fish hook / open eye" (3-4), was even more powerful because that was
Margaret Atwood writes in a vivid, witty and often sharply discomfiting style in all of her literary works. To call her a feminist author is in a way selling her short as her work, while often centered on issues of gender, has also focused on Canadian national identity, Canada's relations with the United States and Europe, human rights issues, environmental issues, and the Canadian wilderness. The poem that I chose to analyze is a very short poem consisting of only four lines titled "You Fit Into Me." It was originally published in Margaret Atwood's anthology Power Politics, but the book I read it in is called, To Hell With Love, which is a collection of poems dealing with heartache and healing after a break-up. As one reads "You Fit Into Me," more and more meaning emerges. Just as a picture is said to be worth a thousand words, a few good lines of verse can pack as much emotional content as a whole paragraph of ordinary prose.
I was 21 years old and had just ended a tumultuous five year relationship with my high school sweetheart the first time I had read the poem. My best friend had given me the book To Hell With Love for Valentine's Day that year so as to alleviate the stress of it being my first Valentine's Day alone since I was 16. After reading the poem, I was taken aback by its length. It was the first time I had ever read a poem that short that actually made sense to me. When a poem only uses a few dozen words, each word becomes extremely important and as soon as I read the poem, every single word was important to me.
The first stanza, "You fit into me/ Like a hook into an eye" (1-2), was like a symbol of the beginning of my relationship. It stood out to me because I am an avid sewer and had instantly thought of an eye hook enclosure. It fits together so perfectly, so smoothly, exactly like we did at first. The second stanza, "fish hook / open eye" (3-4), was even more powerful because that was