They Eat Out
They Eat Out - meaning Summary
Immortality Offered with Dinner
The speaker and a partner discuss paying for a funeral, but the poem reframes the question as whether the speaker will make the partner immortal. Using an uncanny act—a magic fork plunging into a plate—the partner is transformed into a glowing, superhero-like figure observed by indifferent diners. The speaker remains ambivalent, continuing to eat and preferring the partner as they were, noting their ambition drove the change.
Read Complete AnalysesIn restaurants we argue over which of us will pay for your funeral though the real question is whether or not I will make you immortal. At the moment only I can do it and so I raise the magic fork over the plate of beef fried rice and plunge it into your heart. There is a faint pop, a sizzle and through your own split head you rise up glowing; the ceiling opens a voice sings Love Is A Many Splendoured Thing you hang suspended above the city in blue tights and a red cape, your eyes flashing in unison. The other diners regard you some with awe, some only with boredom: they cannot decide if you are a new weapon or only a new advertisement. As for me, I continue eating; I liked you better the way you were, but you were always ambitious.
from Selected Poems 1965-1975
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