OK, so this tiny, and amazing little poem is the one that helped me to realize how much power and emotion is hidden within the written language. And we are meant to uncover it! I first read this poem when I was nineteen years old, and was in my first upper division english class. Our professor told us to read “You Fit Into Me” by Margaret Atwood. I took one look, smirked, and wrote STUPID across the page. In fact, I couldn’t even believe that a poem like this would be included in an anthology. What was the point? Of course then, I didn’t understand poetry, or what beauty there was to find.
you fit into me
like a hook into an eye
a fish hook
an open eye
And that’ all that there is. I thought it was a disgusting image, of a fish hook delving itself into an eye. Why was this important for us to read? Is the speaker in the poem simply telling us how horrible this other person”fits into him or her.” That maybe, they are so horrendous together, it causes the speaker physical pain, like a hook into an eye?
But then my professor asked us to think for a bit longer, about the words used in the poem, and if they had any other meaning. Someone then asked, “Isn’t an eye also something that a hook clasps itself into?”(See image below). It was like something shattered in my mind. My understanding, and single view of poetry that I had had before, was changed. A fish hook fits itself perfectly into an eye. In fact, more perfectly than most things I could imagine. A fish hook is meant to fit into an eye.
You see, this poem, in my own opinion, shows the perfections, and the wonders of love; Of true love. “You fit into me like a hook into an eye. A fish hook an open eye.” It is beautiful. And made me finally realize that often times, we have to analyze poetry to understand the beauty.
Any time sometimes tells me that they don’t like poetry because they don’t get it, I tell them to read this poem!
Perfection!
Also, here’s a song because what goes better with poetry than music?
lazylanguage 
Poetry can certainly be a challenge– thanks for sharing! : )
I came to this page thinking the same thing as the writer’s original opinion. I have never had a real appreciation for poetry, but like was said: it felt like something fell apart or shattered inside of me. My understanding is totally different! Great article!
it’s interesting that you find this poem to be a romantic one. i went into it with the assumption of a “hook and eye” clasp, and it’s cliched image of fitting together perfectly. then she Atwood shocks us with that fish hook / open eye – that rawness! it’s still a love poem, just a more honest one, honest about the pain that often comes when one loves someone who isn’t good for them.
its painful to be with you but its more painful to be without you
A fish hook isn’t meant to fit into an open eye. A hook and an eye do, indeed, look exactly as you have drawn and them and fit perfectly into each other, but they have nothing to do with fishing. They have to do with sewing. A hook-and-eye is a way of closing the top of the back of a dress. You can find it at a sewing shop or a fabric shop. The hook in a hook-and-eye does not come to a sharp point the way a fish hook does.
The poem has two stanzas, one about the perfect match that is the only one you and your commenters think good poetry is supposed to be about, and one about a match that is not perfect but in fact very painful, which you and your readers think is not a fit subject for poetry, right? (I don’t think saying “You fit into me like a fish hook fits into an open eye” means “it’s painful to be without you.”)
Maybe people in painful relationships actually derive comfort from knowing that someone else understands their pain? Might that function–making someone in pain feel comforted and understood–also be a valid function for poetry? Or should it only be about True Love?
what does this mean