Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

An Analysis of the Poem You Fit into Me by Margaret Atwood

Good Essays
1639 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
An Analysis of the Poem You Fit into Me by Margaret Atwood
Poetry test
Thursday October 3

You fit into me
By: Margaret Atwood
You fit into me like a hook into an eye a fishhook an open eye
What initially appears to be a silly love poem quickly becomes dark and harrowing. Atwood overturns the expected definition of “hook and eye” and replaces it with an image of brutality and violence. The power of this setup/letdown formula often hinges, as in this poem, on the multiple meanings of words. “You fit into me” captures Atwood’s interest in the mechanisms of language, the different kind of words, and the many layers of meanings. “A fish hook, an open eye” means there is a love hate relationship, but the more they are together the more it will hurt. The longer they are together the longer the hook will be in the eye and will hurt a lot more.
Those Winter Sundays By Robert Hayden (1913-1980)

Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking. When the rooms were warm, he'd call, and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of love's austere and lonely offices?
The speaker is a grown man but remembering himself when he was a kid and how those cold winters were with his old man. According to the speaker, his pops gets up super early every Sunday morning I think he wakes up very early and gets out of the house to get away from the chronic angers in the morning and continuing his “lonely offices” to light fires in the fireplaces to warm up their home. No one, including the speaker, thanks his father for doing this. The speaker then tells us that he’d get out of bed once the house was warm and when his father called for him. He was a little bit afraid of his father, and the house was filled with “chronic angers,” means every morning there will have to be a fight and he doesn’t want to wake up in the middle of the fights in the house. Then, once the speaker had hauled himself out of bed, he'd talk to his dad, but not with any kind of enthusiasm or affection. And this despite the fact that his dad had lit all the fires in his house, and even polished his kid's shoes for church to look good. Why’d he do that? Probably because he didn't know a ton about love back then, The speaker implies in the poem’s final lines that he didn’t understand that his father’s behavior (lighting the fires, shining the shoes) was an expression of fatherly love and lonely offices as in doing services for others (family in this case). But now he does. And concluded that even though his father didn’t show the fatherly love he still loved his kid and the kid really meant saying “what did I know?” he was a kid didn’t understand much.
My Father’s Song: Simon j. Ortiz (1941- )
(1976)
Wanting to say things,
I miss my father tonight.
His voice, the slight catch, the depth from his thin chest, the tremble of emotion in something he has just said to his son, his song:
We planted corn one spring at Acu- we planted several times but this one particular time
I remember the soft damp sand in my hand.
My father had stopped at one point to show me an overturned furrow; the plowshare had unearthed the burrow nest of a mouse in the soft moist sand.
Very gently, he scooped tiny pink animals into the palm of his hand and told me to touch them.
We took them to the edge of the field and put them in the shade of a sand moist clod.
I remember the very softness of cool and warm sand and tiny alive mice and my father saying things.

The son is the speaker (Simon); the setting is on a field. It’s a good memory because his father saved “tiny pink animals” mice. Most parents would till their little kids to not touch mice because they might be sick and cause a disease and whatnot but his dad asked him to touch those tiny pink animals and he was not too scared to show his son its ok to show off your soft side and be kind to animals. He was teaching his son to be friendly and he also trusted his son (it came with trust). The poem had an “s” sound as in smooth because the whole poem / memory was a happy one with his father. He really misses talking to his dad and listening to him not his wisdom talk but his voice. We assume his father is dead.

Sea fever
John Masefield
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking, I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying. I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

John Masefield's poem "Sea-Fever" expresses a sailor's powerful longing to return to the sea. The poem's rhythm creates a sense of the sailor's experiences at sea. The imagery and sensory details (hyperbole) creates a mood of freedom and adventure. The poem also makes it clear that the sailor wants his return to the sea to be his final journey. The rhythm and meter of "Sea-Fever" simulates (simile) the movement of a ship through the sea, strong winds, and rough waters. Alliteration adds to this effect. The title of the poem, "Sea-Fever," and the poet's vivid imagery communicate the power of the sea" The "lonely sea and sky" shows the sailor's feelings of powers of nature. The speaker paints a picture of the "windy day with the white clouds flying." While most of the imagery creates a sense of the dangers of being a sailor, the speaker also describes the freedom associated with the sea. The poet describes the surface of the water as wrinkly. “When the long trick's over" describes the end of life. The speaker hopes for a "quiet sleep and a sweet dream," or a peaceful passing. The speaker is looking forward to the end of his journey on the sea, just as he looks forward to the end of his life. Through meter, imagery, and figurative language Masefield shows his love of the sea.

My papa’s waltz
Theodore Roethke

The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.

The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.

You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.

The little boy (Theodore) is the speaker; his poem is about his relationship with his dad. The meter in this poem in a trio meter which logically makes sense because of the waltz. In the title itself says how close he is with his father by calling his dad “my papa” which really suggests he was a little boy, a waltz is a dance where couples would dance to it formally and it’s a dance from the 17th hundreds that has 3 beats. His dad is drunk, though when he was little he didn’t quite know what that meant, yet when his dad came in he just went along with his dad dancing and having so much fun, but the pans in the kitchen slid off onto the ground, yet the son nor the dad cared they were having fun. His mother was sad she didn’t like seeing her alcoholic husband around her son. The little boy was happy but also scared that night. He generally feared his father, and we know that because there are words like “death”, ”battered”, ”scraped”, and “beat” in the poem which are negative words, yet can describe that his dad is better off drunk around his son because he liked being around his dad when he is happy. His dad might have hated his job or didn’t like his wife or even had a very bad day so he comes home drunk. At the last stanza he says “you beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt then waltzed me off to bed still clinging to your shirt” its a very positive stanza that shows how much he loves his dad and wants to stay up all night dancing with him.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    You Fit Into Me Analysis

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Atwood uses simple imagery to explain a more intricate thought. Atwood uses the metaphor of a fish hook and it’s accompanying apparatus, the eye, to explain that her lover and she were designed for one another. The fish hook and the eye naturally latch to one another which serves to accentuates the name of the work.Without each other, these two instruments would be useless and so without her lover she would not find purpose. The second stanza uses the word open which gives a mood of openness and willingness in their relationship. However, the poem can be interrupted more somberly. The reader may understand the eye mentioned in the composition to be a literal eye and in that case, love is seen as an agonizing experience. Therefore, the second stanza also takes new meaning and it now seems as if Atwood masochistically endures and submits to the anguish that comes with being with her…

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To Build a Fire

    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages

    about the cold, but the man’s pride gets in the way of his trust toward the old timer. By the man’s…

    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I read and analyzed the poem “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden. Hayden writes this poem in memory of his foster father who took him into his household when Hayden was young. He is looking back on his childhood and reflecting on how his foster father was not appreciated enough, for all of the things he did for the family. Hayden, now being grown up, can truly appreciate the love and patience that his family had for him and how selfless they were for him, especially his father.…

    • 527 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Maggie Anderson is an American poet and editor with roots in Appalachia. On Wednesday, October 4, 2016, she came into English 360 class to read some of her poems and surprise the class with a group poem activity. She was invited to West Liberty University and did a poetry reading before attending the class, but I was unable to attend that reading. She read two of the poems from the packet the class received ahead of time and also three more from a her book of poems she brought. The class was well behaved and to listen to Anderson read was relaxing. She though she is a soft reader, it was loud enough for the people in the back to hear. Though the temperature in the room is always freezing, listening intently to Anderson’s voice and her poems made one not realize how cold the room was. After the class asked a few good questions and I really enjoyed the in-class session Anderson had the class participate in, it was good practice and also the class applied what we have been learning.…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The speaker in the poem, “Those Winter Sundays”, by Robert Hayden, reveals both his loving and regretful feelings about his father by using symbolization, diction, and a regretful, “if only” tone, which are all reflected by the “angry home”.…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A poem that shows what a man does for his son, Robert Hayden has made a short poem titled “Those Winter Sunday’s”. It’s a poem that is created by the son because he regrets not thanking his father as a child. Throughout this poem readers tend to understand that parents do what is needed without appreciation and it ties in family relationship and parents love for their children he shows a lot through imagery in this poem.…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hayden’s poem “Those Winter Sundays” is about a man lacking appreciation for the hard work and dedication that he does on a day to day basis for his job, but his child loves and appreciates him for all of the hard work that he does. The poem was from a child’s point of view and the theme of Those Winter Sundays is created through the stream of consciousness, conflicts, symbolism, and a flat/ static relationship of the poem. The father rises early on Sundays after a dense week of work, it seems as though no one appreciates him. Considering that the father work all the time the father might not show that he cares because he is not emotionally intact. However, getting up early to attend work shows that he cares because he is doing what he has to do to take care of the house. “Sundays to my father got up early. No one ever thanked him” (line1 & 5). This line represents a loving child who watches their father despises on getting up every Sunday to go to work and never receives a thank you for all of the hard work that he has done.…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The nature of the relationships throughout the poem seems to change from a seemingly equal sense of love from both goldfish, to a more one-sided relationship in the last stanza of the poem. In the first stanza the male character is said to be a “drifter”, this foreshadows the later stages of the poem as he slowly becomes ambitionless. He is bounded by his own infatuations so much so that he fails to realize what is happening in the present; this is signified in the second stanza where the idea of “round walls” is presented and illustrates that he is completely encompassed by his feelings for her. This tunnel vision is further represented in the second stanza where “fish eyes” are mentioned, fish eyes are on the side of their body’s, meaning that they can only see things that are happening to the sides of them, and are unable to see what is coming towards them in the foreground.…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Those Winter Sundays”, Robert Hayden describes a cold Sunday morning in which a hard working father prepares the household to start the day. Hayden allows the reader the sense that at the time he did not appreciate his father’s sacrifice. Throughout the poem, Hayden uses imagery “with cracked hands that ached/from labor” (3-4) and metaphor “Speaking indifferently to him, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices” (10, 13-14) to describe his hardworking father and their relationship. The mood is set in the first paragraph.…

    • 88 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In 'Those Winter Sundays' by Robert Hayden the author describes his hard working father working to looking after his family during hard times. The author describes a period in America during the Great Depression. Accordingly, when a man's duty as would be to provide for his family. Robert Hayden grew up in America great depression when food was scarce as was providing for one's family wasn't easy by far. The author seems to be reminiscing and appreciating his father for getting up early on Sunday. As noted in the first stanza his hands "were cracked from labor', or "no one ever thanked him," to drive out the cold.…

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I believe what Margaret Atwood is trying to convey is, there is no such thing as perfection, not even in writing. If we wait on perfection we will never get anything done. There is only one who is perfect, can I get an amen on that class. Free writing has always been my best brainstoming technique, and the writing just seems to flow, and boy, it is far from perfect, but it contains greatness. Never let perfection stop you, let it help you to improve by stretching for it.…

    • 89 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Oftentimes we look back at a certain point in our lives with regret. We feel that if only we had known then what we know now, things would have been different. As we grow older, our view of the world is altered through experience and maturity. In Robert Hayden’s "Those Winter Sundays," the speaker is a man reflecting on his past and his apathy toward his father when the speaker was a child. As an adult the speaker has come to understand what regretfully had escaped him as a boy. Now he has learned to appreciate the form his father’s love had taken. The speaker now understands how difficult and lonely the duties of parental love can be and how…

    • 1365 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The main character, Robert Hayden, lives in a poor environment with his father. However, his father always supports Robert so that he can have the life that others are receiving for granted. Hayden writes, “Sundays too my father go up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold and made banked fires blaze” (Hayden, 4). Hayden mentions that his father “got up early” and “made banked fires blaze.” These two phrases illustrates a clear image in the reader’s mind of Robert’s father waking up in the dark, cold morning and starting a warm fire for Robert so that he isn’t cold when he sleeps. This action of the father demonstrates that he cares for his son so much, that he sacrifices his own time, which he could be using otherwise, to use it for the best of his child. Therefore, it was the father’s choice to use his time to support his…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wilfred Owen

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages

    My body shivered. I started to sweat and bite my nails. I hugged my pillow as close to my body as the water pounded furiously outside. The wind made weird, frightening noises outside while the house inside creaked. I payed close attention to all these noises as I unblinkingly watched the T.V. monitor.…

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thomas [Last Name] is an older man at seventy-five whose thoughts and memory are reflected perfectly in this piece. The randomness of the writer’s thoughts, quickly moving from one irrelevant subject to another, reminds me of conversations that I have shared with my father in recent years. Also, similar to the poem, “Often now as an old man/Who sleeps only four hours a night/I wake before dawn, dress and go down” (1-3) my father sleeps very few hours at night and is always the first person out of bed every morning, before dawn, to make the coffee and read his newspaper. When I go to [His State] and visit the family, every morning he’s been up for hours reading, walking the dog, feeding the cat, meditating and hitting the gym, before my feet ever touch the floor.…

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays