How to Eat a Poem

How to Eat a Poem

By Eva Merriam

Don't be polite.

Bite in.

Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that
may run down your chin.

It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.
You do not need a knife or fork or spoon or plate or napkin or tablecloth.

For there is no core

or stem

or rind

or pit

or seed

or skin

to throw away.

The poet compares a poem to a fruit to show that a poem is meant to be savoured fully, like a fruit. When she says "bite in," she means it as an invitation to the reader to taste and enjoy the poem. Just as the fruit is rich in juice, the poem is similarly rich in meaning. The poet also tells us in the second stanza that there is nothing to throw away in the poem because every word is precious and nothing ought to be wasted.

By comparing a poem to a fruit, the poet is trying to tell us to look forward to reading poetry and reading it enthusiastically, in the same way we would look forward to sinking our teeth into a juicy fruit.

Poets make use of metaphors in poetry for many reasons. Sometimes poets use metaphors to help us understand something that is hard to describe, and other times they use metaphors to leave a deep impression on our minds. Metaphors enliven ordinary language and make us sit up and take notice of what the poet is trying to say.

Metaphors and Similes

A METAPHOR is a figure of speech that draws comparisons between two unlike things in an arresting or memorable way.

For example:

• Life is a box of chocolates (Forrest Gump)
• The world's a stage (William Shakespeare)
• You are the sunshine of my life
• Love is a universal migraine
• John swelled and ruffled his plumage (implied metaphor)
• He inspected her with a vulture's eye (implied metaphor)
• The rugby player cradled the giant egg ball (implied metaphor)

A SIMILE a type of metaphor in which two unlike things are compared using "like" or "as."

For example:

• As light as a feather
• As heavy as an ox
• As sly as a fox
• As busy as a bee
• As proud as a peacock
• As clear as a bell
• As pure as snow
• As quick as lightning

• He eats like a pig.
• Her eyes are like the sun.
• She ran like the wind.
• The twins are like two peas in a pod
• Her hair was like gravy, running brown off her head and clumping up on her shoulders.