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The Man Moth Poem Analysis

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THE MAN MOTH BY ELIZABETH BISHOP

In order to understand the true meaning of the man-moth we must understand the Author who wrote it first. This is a key feature in analyzing this poem. Elizabeth Bishop was more of a detached person in society. This probably occurred most likely after her psychological and physical sickness she underwent. She recovered and went back to her brazilian home where her friend who was also suffering from these diseases was supposed to meet her. However he died that same day from an overdose of tranquilizers. What exactly happened in Elizabeth’s mind is uncertain but something about that event (most like her being upset about it) caused her to go into depression. This later affected much of her poetry.

“This book …show more content…

We should also take key details which although may seem unnecessary, play an important part in analyzing the poem. I will present these as a list.

This scene takes place at night - My reasoning behind this is simple the author makes a constant reference towards the moon and obviously since the moon appears at night this scene takes place at night

The man moth isn’t an animal or a person - The man moth isn’t an animal or a person. Feel free to call me out on this but I believe that the entirety of the poem is a personification of different objects.The first stanza sticks out as I noticed it does not tie in very well (meaning wise) with the rest of the poem but I will explain all that in my conclusion and throughout the rest

Personification of different things - The man moth may be a personification of many different things. No one object may be the center of focus in this story. Or perhaps it may even be no objects that come into focus here.

These are just 3 of my claims of course I could make more but I would like to simplify this as much as possible and get my point out. My goal is to explain this simply and leave you with a better understanding of what this simple yet mysterious poem

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