Eat Me

‘Eat Me’

As a title is relatively ambiguous at first, however it can offer up a variety of interpretations. Firstly, it is typically stylised in capital letters, which signifies the growth of the woman throughout the poem as a result of the constant feeding. While there can be a physical interpretation, there is a much more notable metaphysical interpretation with the idea that the man is mentally devouring her spirituality.

The Structure

The very strict form of the poem helps to represent the strictness of the regime imposed by the feeder and that it has become commonplace. There are a total of ten tercet stanzas, which adds to the overall regimented mood. In addition, there is assonance between the final words on the first and third lines of each stanza, such as “cake” and “weight”, with an alternative form of assonance in each line which breaks from the traditional idea of using rhyme.

Even more interesting is the use of consonance on each corresponding line, for example the first line of each stanza has the “k” sound, “d” on the second and “t” on the third. The only point in which this is broken in the poem is at the end of stanza six, however this is in many ways negated by the fact that the next word is “too” so therefore continues the idea of consonance.

There are also consistent end stopped lines on the final line of each stanza (although again with the exception of stanza six), which reinforce the idea of routine and consistency once again. However, there is also a slight break in this structure too with the final two lines of the last stanza both ending with full stops, which signifies the death of the man, and by extension, the relationship. This helps to make the poem more dramatic, and also bring a sense of unease to the reader.

Techniques

Various poetic devices are used throughout ‘Eat Me’, one of the more common ones being alliteration. A key example is “bigger the better” and “broad belly wobble”, both of which help to reaffirm the idea of obesity and being overweight, and even have a ‘wobbly’ nature to the sound.

There is also the use of possessive language, such as “his”, objectifying the woman and decreasing her importance which is coupled with the idea of directly linking an object, such as “his Jacuzzi”, which makes it much more notable for a reader and is more likely to cause sympathy to be…