Analysis of poem 'Eat Me' by Patience Agbabi

• known for her writing :blurring the boundaries between 'peforemance 'poet and 'page 'poet
• many other boundaries , including racial and sexual
• born in London in 1965 ( Nigerian but fostered by a white English family in Wales)
• she has a fasination for traditional poetic forms and the use of personae to explore her themes 

• Intertexuality : Alice in Wonderand ( goes back to dramatic monologue in this famous book, where Alice eats a cake that has 'eat me' written on it in smarties and gets bigger
• invitation to eat 
• poem explores relationship between overweight women and a feeder who are stuck in a dysfunctional relationship
• he may have a fettish 
• the poem is not  purely a sexual one but also speaks of the physical and emotional dependancy of the eater on the feeder 
• the feeder may be  insecure /  feeding the  women in the poem is an emotional crutch for man 

• may be a reference to her age or weight
• it is therefore  a little ambigous 
• this opening line introduces to us the subject of the poem 
• next line 'threee layers of icing, home-made.'
• he made it himself
• he is celebrating her wieght game, like it is an achievement - the reader may find the poem/ his attitude shocking
• 'a candle for each stone in weight.' 
• the first line is no longer ambigious - the reader now knows it is a referance to weight - the women weights 30 stone 

• white symbolises innocence, but pink symbolises feminimity e.g 'girly ' 
• 'they said 'Eat me' - controlling
• readers had to ask if women is complisit or the victim of a form of abuse at the hands of a controlling partner 
• 'And I ate it, did what I was told.
• Didn't even taste it' - this line conveys to the reader that eating is not about pleasure for the women 
• the women is dismissive about the enjoyment of food 
• there is a shocking attitude towards consumption in the poem   

Verse 3

• verse is full of vowel sounds
• which are almost overwhelming
• onomatopoeia , assonance , repeatition 
• 'round the bed so he could watch by broad
• belly wobble ,hips judder like a juggernaut.

Verse 4

• ' THe bigger the better ,he'd say,' - change to his voice
• 'i like ( new line) big girls, osft girls , girls i can burrow inside'
• repetition of girls 
• he is controlling, note he uses the word 'girls ' instead of women 
• he is overbearing, and his partner is hidden away and dependant upon him ( unhealthy relationship)
• he substains her 

• like Jacuzzi- she is fixed in one place- her vitality is explored in this line
• she is his temptation
• Jacuzzi- bubbling movement 
• 'he was my cook' - he substains her
• 'my only pleasure was the rush of fast food,' -she gets no pleasure out of the relationship 
• 'watch me swell like forbidden fruit .' - story of Adam and Eve from the Bible ( in this story most of the blame is placed on Eve for tempting Adam - like the snake to disobey God)
• this poem explores gender politics 
• 'His breadfruit. His desert-island after shipwreak.' - the poet , who is black ,explores racism in her poems, here the referance may be to colonial power as he ( the man/feeder ) has overtaken the women 
• Verse again leaves reader wondering, who is at fault ? 

• repetition of 'too fat to..' - she laments her loss of freedom e.g she is no longer mobile ,she is unable to go out due to her weight 
• does this make reader feel sorry for her ? 

                                               Verse 7

• 'The day I hit thirty-nine..' - another referance to her increased weight
• 'I allowed him to stroke ( next line ) my globe of a cheek' - another referance to world 
• also gives reader a sense of something unimaginably big 
• The poet is using dark humour to portray how serious the situtation has become 
• 'He said , Open wide, poured olive oil down my throat.'
• Line conveys how controlling the man in this relationship is 
• and also again the shocking attitude to consumption e.g pouring olive oil down someones throat 

Verse 8

• referance to increasing weight
• feeder is delighted by her progressing weight gain
• ' I drowned his dying sentence out'
• if reader is shocked by attitude to consumption within poem, they are even more shocked by the attitude to death
• ( women in poem has suffocated or 'drowned ' man to death)

Verse 9

• 'his eyes bulging with greed.' gluttony /consumption until end
• ' Final line : 'There was nothing else left in the house to eat.' ambigious ending 
• dark humour ( through literal interpretation e.g she is about to eat him)
• or that by end the conlonial authoriity has ben overwhelmed by the nation who get their independance
• or another metophorical interpretation , that his controlling nature and her consumption have removed her identity which she has reclaimed at the end of the poem 
• ( also running theme of gender politics )