The Full Text of “[you fit into me]”
The Full Text of “[you fit into me]”
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“[you fit into me]” Introduction
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"[you fit into me]" first appeared in Canadian author Margaret Atwood's Power Politics, a 1971 poetry collection exploring feminist themes. In four short lines, the poem's speaker reveals the horror that may lie just beneath the surface of romance. On its broadest level, the poem suggests that, in romantic love, there's a fine line between passion and pain. The poem can also be interpreted as being specifically about the gender dynamics of heterosexual love in a patriarchy, or a world in which men primarily hold positions of power throughout society. In such a world, the poem implies, romance between men and women is complicated by male dominance and the possibility of violence.
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“[you fit into me]” Summary
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You and I fit together like the hook-and-eye clasp on a piece of clothing.
We fit together like a fish hook fits into an eyeball.
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“[you fit into me]” Themes
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Romance and Violence
Atwood's compact, razor-sharp poem suggests the horror that may lie just beneath the surface of romance. The first two lines might lead readers to expect a typical love poem—one that celebrates the sense of unity and connection between two people—but the second stanza demolishes that expectation with its queasy violence. Romantic love in the poem easily slips from passion to pain. Even more specifically, the poem can be taken as a reflection of the way cultural ideas of blissful heterosexual love cover a dark, complex reality, in which romance between men and women is complicated by patriarchal power dynamics and the ever-present threat of violence.
The speaker begins with an image of what seems like a perfect match: the speaker and the poem's addressee fit together like a “hook and eye,” a kind of fastening often used on clothing. This image raises a number of associations that prime readers for a poem about love and romance.
What's more, a hook and eye, in which two differently-shaped things meet to perfectly serve a purpose, suggest not just romance and sexuality, but a traditional heterosexual romance in which, literally and metaphorically, differently-shaped pieces come together. The association of “you” with the “hook” and “me” with the “eye” also gives the reader a sense that the speaker is likely a woman in a relationship with a man: the hook can be read as a phallic symbol, an image of a penis, and the eye as a vaginal symbol.
The function of a hook and eye is to fasten, secure, and hold together, suggesting that this matched partnership is stabilizing and whole: a relationship in which each party lovingly supports the other. In suggesting clothing, the image of the hook and eye also raises images not just of dressing but of undressing: hook-and-eye fasteners are most often used as closures on bras. This underlines the image’s sexual connotations.
But having raised these images of sexuality and romance, Atwood at once undoes them with double-edged images. The “hook” is revealed to be grotesquely violent, and the “eye” helpless, vulnerable—and perhaps coming to some unpleasant realizations. The “hook” becomes a “fish hook,” which is not just barbed and threatening, but also carries connotations of deceit. Where a hook fastener holds securely, a fish hook lures, traps, and kills.
The “eye,” meanwhile, becomes “an open eye,” juxtaposed without warning with the fish hook. That the eye is “open” makes it feel both vulnerable and perceptive. In this last line, the “eye” is threatened, but it’s also seeing the truth of the hook’s violence.
The reader might also spot a pun on “eye” and “I” here: the “open I,” the vulnerable speaker, cruelly shocked not just by the violence of her relationship but by its difference from what she has taught to expect from romance. However, as the poem makes horribly clear, that new perspective might not last long: the fish hook will blind the eye, making it even more helpless.
The poem keeps two distinct feelings in uneasy tension. The first stanza’s feeling of perfect fit is not destroyed by the violent revelation of the second stanza. Rather, there’s the understanding that, in a patriarchy—a society in which men wield broad structural power over women—even a loving relationship between a man and woman always carries an implicit threat. The man’s power, the poem implies, is always a presence, even when it isn’t enacted violently.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-4
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “[you fit into me]”
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Line 1
you fit into me
The first line does a lot of heavy lifting in just four words. This line introduces the theme of sexuality, tells readers something about the speaker and the person she's addressing, and prepares the reader for a poem rather different from the poem they'll end up getting.
At first blush, this seems likely to be a love poem. There's a "me" addressing a "you," and the listener "fits into" the speaker. Even before the poem provides more information, there's clearly something sexual going on: right here at the beginning, there's an image of penetration, and even if it's a more metaphorical "fitting," the literal sense of intercourse isn't far beneath the surface.
The word "fit" demands some attention. Besides the sexual image, there are also connotations of matching or a sense of rightness in the word: "fit" as in the adjective "fitting," meaning appropriate or rightful. The assonance of "fit into" underlines this impression. This poem, the reader is immediately led to expect, is going to be the brief story of two people who match each other, physically and emotionally. They belong together. Typical love poem stuff—for now at least.
The enjambment between this line and the next contributes to these initial impressions by slowing the reader down, separating out this idea of fitting from the simile that follows in the second line. (See the "Poetic Devices" section for more on how enjambment works here!)
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Line 2
like a hook into an eye
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Line 3
a fish hook
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Line 4
an open eye
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“[you fit into me]” Symbols
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The Hook and Eye
A hook and eye refers to a kind of clothing fastener made up of two parts: the hook, usually a piece of bent wire, and a loop of the same material that the hook fits into. Hook and eye closures are often used in women's undergarments— think of a corset or bra clasp. Their role as fasteners on clothing carry connotations of snugness and matching. A hook or an eye on their own are useless; it's only together that the two can do their job. In a way, then, this image pair represents a romantic coupling, the way that partners may complete each other, keep each other secure and fulfilled.
The first stanza's image of the hook and eye also specifically suggests sexuality, in a number of ways. A hook and eye is composed of two parts, one inserted into the other—a clearly sexual image, with hook as penis and eye as vagina. And on a more literal level, hooks and eyes might come into play when someone is getting dressed—or undressed. Consider that one most often finds hooks and eyes on bras.
The image of the hook and eye thus sets the reader up to imagine a straight couple in a rather traditional relationship: one in which the man and woman are imagined as two different parts that come together to make a whole.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 2: “hook into an eye”
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The Fish Hook
When the hook is revealed to be not an innocent little fastener but rather a fish hook, its symbolic weight changes substantially.
There's some clear phallic symbolism with this image; essentially, the fish hook can be thought of, on one level, as representing male genitalia. Also note that a fish hook is far from innocent. It's even actively deceptive: it's used to lure, capture, and kill prey. It's sharp, barbed, and difficult to escape, and if fish's reactions are anything to go by, it's extremely unpleasant to have stuck in one's body. If the speaker's lover is a "fish hook," then, he's both alluring and dangerous. To be "hooked," here, is to be trapped in a dangerous situation. This might be interpreted as representing the way passionate love can seem tempting at first but tip easily into pain.
The final line complicates this symbol even further. The hook here is not being used as it normally might—to capture—but as an instrument of torture, stuck into "an open eye." The implication is that this situation of gendered violence is unnatural on a number of levels.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 3: “a fish hook”
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The Open Eye
The "open eye" of the poem's last line is a complicated symbol. It in part represents the speaker herself, female genitalia, and also a general awareness of social realities.
As the helpless victim of the descending "fish hook," it's disturbingly vulnerable: the eye doesn't even blink to flinch away from the violence that it sees coming. But in that "openness," the eye also has a subversive power. The "open eye" can see what's going on (at least for the moment). Having your "eyes opened" is an idiomatic way of describing suddenly understanding something. The speaker symbolically associates herself with the eye, and the eye is also an "I", a person who can see something true about what's going on in her romantic relationship. Perhaps the openness of the "eye" is what allows for this poem to be written.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 4: “an open eye”
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“[you fit into me]” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Antanaclasis
Antanaclasis is the device upon which this poem hinges. It's the double meaning of "hook" and "eye" that gives "[you fit into me]" its punch and its power.
Here, this repetition brings to the reader's attention the multiple meanings of the words "hook" and "eye." In the first stanza, when the speaker sets the reader up to expect a love poem, the reader presumes the "hook and eye" are the kind that one uses to close a bra or a dress: simple, innocent, everyday objects. Moreover, they are objects that belong together—that are useless without each other, even.
It's the introduction of new adjectives that makes the reader see the more sinister implications of the words. The reader who doesn't wince at the idea of a "fish hook" entering an "open eye" would be pretty unflappable. The revelation that the hook is a "fish hook" adds symbolic power: a fish hook, after all, is used to lure, capture, and kill. And an "open eye" is helpless and vulnerable, but also has an ability a hook lacks: it can see what's happening.
The speaker's ordering of her antanaclasic repetition here makes the effect that much more powerful. She keeps the hook and eye in the same positions in both stanzas, one after the other, so that the very last image of the poem is the "open eye," down at the bottom, looking up at the hook as it descends.
Where antanaclasis appears in the poem:- Line 2: “hook,” “eye”
- Line 3: “hook”
- Line 4: “eye”
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Assonance
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Enjambment
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Juxtaposition
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Simile
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Pun
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"[you fit into me]" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Hook and eye
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(Location in poem: Line 2: “hook into an eye”)
A kind of two-part fastening, usually used on clothing, in which a hook (often made of wire) fits into a ring made of the same material. Think of the clasp on a bra.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “[you fit into me]”
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Form
The poem doesn't use a traditional form, but its shape still reflects the ideas it's working with.
The poem is divided into two couplets: a pair of pairs. This choice reflects both the symmetries and the tensions in the poem's theme. Right there in the word "couplet" is the idea of a "couple."
But the matching, happy couple of the first stanza appear in a very different light in the second. It's as if the break between the two stanzas serves as a distorting mirror: the second coupling of "a fish hook" and "an open eye" reflects horribly back on the seeming harmony of the first.
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Meter
There's no particular meter in this poem, which instead uses free verse. The lack of strict patterning makes the poem feel loose and conversational, making its final twist all the more shocking.
Yet while the poem doesn't follow a metrical pattern, it's still powerfully rhythmic, and the difference between the rhythms in the first and second couplets help to bring home the horror of the final images. Both lines in first stanza are longer than those in the second, stretching out the initial simile. The second stanza is then just seven syllables total, and every word apart from "open" is monosyllabic. This lands the striking image of the second stanza with a wallop; the twist comes quickly and bluntly, the percussive syllables like a sudden gut punch.
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Rhyme Scheme
The poem is written in free verse and has no rhyme scheme. This, in turn, underlines its sense of unease. In its other formal choices, the poem reflects themes of the meeting of two different things (for instance, the paired lines suggesting paired romantic partners—see the "Form" section for more on this). But the total absence of rhyme throws a wrench into conventional expectations for love poetry. Rhyme would fit in perfectly here if this were a poem about comfortable matching: rhyme, after all, has the power to create an aesthetically satisfying feeling of likeness within difference. But the absence of rhyme here helps the reader to feel that this poem isn't dealing with the surprise and delight of finding a happy match in someone different from oneself. Rather, the difference between the man and the woman in the poem, while matching them in one way, sets them badly at odds in another.
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“[you fit into me]” Speaker
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The poem uses a first-person speaker, and the reader can glean a surprising amount about this speaker in the space of four short lines.
The reader can be pretty sure, for instance, that the speaker is a woman in a relationship with a man. The clues are there in the images. Fitting together "like a hook into an eye" speaks to traditional ideas of heterosexual romance: two different-shaped parts that match up. There's a sexual connotation here (hook and eye as penis and vagina) as well as the gendered connotation of male and female matching up to make a fitting pair.
The speaker associates herself with the "eye," and in her role as the eye seems both vulnerable and perceptive. She's "open": threatened by the fish hook's violence, she nevertheless has the power to see and understand what's going on. The poem is a record of the speaker's realization of a woman's dilemma in a patriarchal society: the "eye" turns to the "hook" for pleasure and love, but can't look away from the violent imbalance of power that the poem suggests underpins relationships between men and women.
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“[you fit into me]” Setting
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The poem doesn't have a clear setting, but the flavor of the poem gives readers some hints at the general world it's set in. The image of gendered violence, combined with the image of the hook-and-eye fastening (most familiar from their use on bras, which were only invented in the 20th century), suggests a modern world—and one in which women are beginning to be more vocally opposed to their own oppression.
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Literary and Historical Context of “[you fit into me]”
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Literary Context
Best known for her novels, the Canadian author Margaret Atwood is also a prolific poet, and her work has been a major influence on many contemporary writers. Atwood's interest in fairy tales and myths often colors her writings, and the trickiness of this poem has a hint of sinister fairy-tale metamorphosis as the seemingly romantic union of a hook and eye transforms into a gruesome penetration.
Atwood's writing rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s, and her poetry collection Power Politics, in which "[you fit into me]" was first published, was one of her breakout works—though some unsympathetic critics dismissed the collection as a polemical product of "women's lib."
Some of Atwood's contemporaries include Angela Carter (The Bloody Chamber) and Octavia Butler (Kindred), fellow writers who share her interest in the political and feminist implications of science fiction, fantasy, and myth. The American writer Adrienne Rich explored similar themes related to feminism and gender in works such as "Diving into the Wreck." One might also see Atwood's influence in the recent trend for apocalyptic or dystopian fiction—for instance, in Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games.
Historical Context
This poem was first published in 1971, in a collection of poems called Power Politics. From this title alone one can get a pretty good sense of what was going on in the world around the book's publication.
Power and politics, especially as they related to gender, were major issues in the 1970s. When Atwood wrote Power Politics, the women's movement was in full swing. The feminist movement of the '60s and '70s saw women demanding respect, safety, power, and freedom—things they had been denied in both subtle and overt ways by the male-dominated world around them. Activists worldwide vocally resisted stultifying gender expectations and spoke up against patriarchal power structures and male violence.
Atwood was a major literary figure in this movement; her most famous work, The Handmaid's Tale, is a dystopian novel in which women are forced into a caste system and used as sex slaves. Atwood herself has remarked that she included nothing in the book that hadn't really happened somewhere in the world.
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More “[you fit into me]” Resources
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External Resources
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Atwood's Dystopias — This essay focuses mostly on Atwood's dystopian fiction.
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Atwood's Biography — Some biographical information on Atwood and links to more of her poems.
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Hook and Eye Closures — The history of the clasp mentioned in the poem.
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The Poem Animated — This reading of the poem leans on its sinister elements right from the beginning.
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An Interview With Atwood — Watch as Atwood discusses her writing process.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Margaret Atwood
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