Eat Me Flashcards
What intertextual link can you make about the title?
The title links to ‘Alice In Wonderland’, in which Alice finds a cake labelled “EAT ME2, eats it, and magically grows bigger.
What kind of statement is “EAT ME”
An imperative statement
What is the organisation of the poem? What does this reflect about the poem?
Very tightly controlled tercets with regular line length, which become a little more irregular near the end of the poem. The reflects the tight control of the relationship/speaker, and how she begins to gain freedom near the end.
What is the rhyme scheme of “EAT ME”?
It is written in free verse, which allows for a sombre and serious tone.
How does the tone begin in the poem? At what point does it change?
In the first two lines of stanza 1, there is an affectionate and intimate tone as the speaker discusses the gift of the cake, however, the line “a candle for every stone in weight” creates an immediate and juxtaposing dark tone that continues for the rest of the poem.
What are the connotations of the pink and white icing?
Innocence, girlishness
Discuss the poetic technique of “Didn’t even taste it.”
This is a sentence fragment - by missing off the “I”, Agbabi shows the disconnect and numbness from the speaker
What poetic technique is used in the following line: “watched my broad belly wobble, thighs judder like a juggernaut” (two answers) and what is their impact?
*Alliteration (broad belly)
*Assonance (judder, jugger-)
*This almost creates the poinding sound of the heavy footsteps in a somewhat comical way, showing us the way that the speaker feels ridiculed.
What is significant about the moment the partner’s voice is included? (four answers)
*The italics value his voice and directly quote him
*the use of “girls” infantilises women and shows the way he sees them
*he defines women by their body types and fetishises bigger ones
*“girls I can burrow inside” suggests he wants to possess or consume his partner.
In the following lines, what is the speaker clearly only used for by their partner?
“I was his jacuzzi. But he was my cook,/
my only pleasure the rush of fast food,/
his pleasure, to watch me swell like forbidden fruit” (BONUS: what are the connotations of forbidden fruit?)
Pleasure - “jacuzzi” “fast food” “forbidden fruit” all suggest luxury or instant gratification and pleasure.
“Forbidden fruit” links to the biblical story about the sins of Eve, which some argue to be the origin of patriarchal cruelty and domination over women historically. It also connotes gaining forbidden knowledge.
What does the repetition of the pronoun “his” suggest?
That the speaker feels possessed or owned by the partner.
In stanza 6 and 8 there is a semantic field of water used. What is it used to show?
The sea/water is used to connote both freedom and power
What technique is used in stanza 7 and what impact do they have?
Repetition - it vastly increases the pace and the tone of the poem becomes more frantic and emotionally heightened.
What is significant about the following words: “beached whale”, “chubby” “cuddly” “big-built”
They are all terms historically heard in society to describe fat bodies - either as insult (“beached whale”) or euphemism.
How does the language of power and control change in the opening of the eighth stanza?
“The day I hit thirty-nine, I allowed him to stroke/
my globe of a cheek.”
The word “allowed” suggests the speaker now holds the power, and the word “globe” describes her fat body as powerful, equivalent to the earth.
What are the inferences that could be made from the line “his flesh, my flesh flowed.”
It sounds as if the speaker corrects the pronoun that she uses - she used to be “his” but now her flesh is “m(ine)”.
What is ironic about the way the partner dies in stanza nine?
The speaker “drowns him with (her) flesh” - i.e he has abused her by feeding her and her body has grown bigger, and she uses her bigger body to kill him.
She also suffocates him, which is how she has felt throughout the poem.
What impact does caesura have on the final line of stanza nine?
“he drowned/
in my flesh. I drowned his dying sentence out.”
It emphasises the finality of the partner’s death.
In the final stanza, which two ways do we see the speaker as in control?
*she leaves the partner’s body
*she describes his body in disgusting and objectifying ways
