Technique/idea Key Quotes and analysis
Key themes: What does Food The poem starts off with “When I hit
this poem explore? Sex thirty, he bought me a cake”,
Power establishing the key theme of food
in the poem.
The speaker states that her partner
likes “girls I can burrow inside”, the
grotesque imagery suggesting that
he fetishises plus sized girls.
The power between the speaker
and her partner shifts between him
commanding her to “open wide” to
her drowning “his dying sentence
out”.
Language: Any patterns Semantic field of water Water is used to symbolise the
of language? Poetic Sexual imagery weight of the speaker. The semantic
techniques? Eg: similes, Subversion of celebration field progressively increases in
metaphors, verbs, etc. Repetition danger, with it starting as her being
Link to the Seven Deadly a ‘jacuzzi’ a symbol of pleasure and
Sins relaxation, followed by a ‘desert
island’, showing how she’s a
saviour, followed by a ‘tidal wave of
flesh’ which gives connotations of
drowning and finally she ‘drowns his
dying sentence out’.
The speaker’s partner asks her to
‘walk round the bed’, the bed being
a symbol of sex and desire. He also
likes girls he can ‘burrow inside’,
suggesting that he uses sex and
abuse as a shield to escape
something. In addition, the speaker
was a jacuzzi to him, which is
typically a risky place where people
have sex.
The poem begins with ‘when I hit
thirty, he bought me a cake’, which
the speaker assumes to be a
celebration of her 30th birthday.
However, as the poem progresses
and the partner statex ‘soon you’ll
be forty’, we infer that it is a twisted
celebration of her unhealthy weight
gain.
The repetition of ‘too fat’ on the
seventh stanza emphasises the
speaker’s self hatred and misery at
her weight.
The reference to ‘gluttony’ from the
seven deadly sins is prevalent here.
Key themes: What does Food The poem starts off with “When I hit
this poem explore? Sex thirty, he bought me a cake”,
Power establishing the key theme of food
in the poem.
The speaker states that her partner
likes “girls I can burrow inside”, the
grotesque imagery suggesting that
he fetishises plus sized girls.
The power between the speaker
and her partner shifts between him
commanding her to “open wide” to
her drowning “his dying sentence
out”.
Language: Any patterns Semantic field of water Water is used to symbolise the
of language? Poetic Sexual imagery weight of the speaker. The semantic
techniques? Eg: similes, Subversion of celebration field progressively increases in
metaphors, verbs, etc. Repetition danger, with it starting as her being
Link to the Seven Deadly a ‘jacuzzi’ a symbol of pleasure and
Sins relaxation, followed by a ‘desert
island’, showing how she’s a
saviour, followed by a ‘tidal wave of
flesh’ which gives connotations of
drowning and finally she ‘drowns his
dying sentence out’.
The speaker’s partner asks her to
‘walk round the bed’, the bed being
a symbol of sex and desire. He also
likes girls he can ‘burrow inside’,
suggesting that he uses sex and
abuse as a shield to escape
something. In addition, the speaker
was a jacuzzi to him, which is
typically a risky place where people
have sex.
The poem begins with ‘when I hit
thirty, he bought me a cake’, which
the speaker assumes to be a
celebration of her 30th birthday.
However, as the poem progresses
and the partner statex ‘soon you’ll
be forty’, we infer that it is a twisted
celebration of her unhealthy weight
gain.
The repetition of ‘too fat’ on the
seventh stanza emphasises the
speaker’s self hatred and misery at
her weight.
The reference to ‘gluttony’ from the
seven deadly sins is prevalent here.
