Rules of Engagement: 1 - You must ADD ON to discussion. Do not repeat either what was said in class OR what someone else already posted about the poem you are discussing. 2 - Please indicate WHICH QUESTION you are answering in your response. 3 - Answer only ONE question. 4 - Make sure you answer ALL parts of that question--i.e. If it asks you to identify a poetic device like alliteration and connect to meaning, make sure you connect to meaning. :)
"Man-Moth" (pp.11-12)
1. How does this poem address the theme of loss of individuality? the Urban Landscape?
2. Choose one of the following devices, identify it in the poem, and connect it to meaning: simile, imagery, metaphor,
1. How does this poem address the theme of loss of individuality? the Urban Landscape?
In the poem “Man-Moth”, by Elizabeth Bishop, the theme of loss of individuality is repetitively portrayed through figurative language and her use of imagery. After reading,” his shadow dragging like a photographer’s cloth behind him”, in the third stanza, we can infer that the “Man-Moth” represents a follower of others, as the “shadow” implies. In this case, the “him” in this sentence represents other people in society and how the person is constantly following them since he lacks the ability to find his way on his own. Because of this person's loss of individuality, they mimic the behavior they see from those around them, without having their own personality. In addition to this, the poem states,”the train starts at once at its full, terrible speed, without a shift in gears or a graduation of any sort. He cannot tell the rate at which he travels backwards”, the idea of moving along with the crowd is portrayed, and gives a image of what his actions look like visually. If someone lets other people decide how they think or what they do, they eventually lose their place in society, since they stand for nothing. Also, since if someone is moving “backwards” it means that they can't see where they're going, which relates to the main character of the poem, and how they have lost their way. When you lose your individuality, you end up forgetting the direction you want your life to go, and give up the control you have over your future.
2) Bishop, in her poem "Moth-Man", uses imagery in a very effective way to great a sense of story in her poem. A lot of the chuncks in the poem consist of mostly descrion of the little adventures this creature goes on. It makes it so that the reader has a close connection to the creature and you want it to succeed. It showes that sometimes the worst, hardest, and scariest of events can be the most defining and sometimes you can remember every painstaking detail of them. The creature is doing its best, and it didn't do too well, but it remembers all of the details because it was a defining journey.
Question 1: It seems that the man-moth has lost himself. The poem portrays the lifestyle of the man-moth which would be in an urban subway. In the beginning of the second stanza, "the man-moth pays his rare, although occasional, visits to the surface," (10). So the man-moth is mostly isolated in his time. The man-moth doesn't seem to be going his own path considering that, "the Man-Moth always seats himself facing the wrong way," (29). He is not doing what he wants, he is just one with the people around him, he blends in, in the urban area with plenty of other people. The man calls the train station his home, but lost his individuality as a person. The poem really addresses the theme by mentioning how often he comes out, and his little fears. Overall the poem shows how lost the man-moth is and how the urban landscape affects or reacts to him.
Question #2 This poem shows how fog is an entity that is like a cat with its "cat feet" just sitting at a harbor. It represents how fog appears to us fro a small amount of time making everything hard to see, but then it just vanishes. This is personification. Gleb Istlentyev
Lauren Eveline
ReplyDelete1. How does this poem address the theme of loss of individuality? the Urban Landscape?
In the poem “Man-Moth”, by Elizabeth Bishop, the theme of loss of individuality is repetitively portrayed through figurative language and her use of imagery. After reading,” his shadow dragging like a photographer’s cloth behind him”, in the third stanza, we can infer that the “Man-Moth” represents a follower of others, as the “shadow” implies. In this case, the “him” in this sentence represents other people in society and how the person is constantly following them since he lacks the ability to find his way on his own. Because of this person's loss of individuality, they mimic the behavior they see from those around them, without having their own personality. In addition to this, the poem states,”the train starts at once at its full, terrible speed, without a shift in gears or a graduation of any sort. He cannot tell the rate at which he travels backwards”, the idea of moving along with the crowd is portrayed, and gives a image of what his actions look like visually. If someone lets other people decide how they think or what they do, they eventually lose their place in society, since they stand for nothing. Also, since if someone is moving “backwards” it means that they can't see where they're going, which relates to the main character of the poem, and how they have lost their way. When you lose your individuality, you end up forgetting the direction you want your life to go, and give up the control you have over your future.
2) Bishop, in her poem "Moth-Man", uses imagery in a very effective way to great a sense of story in her poem. A lot of the chuncks in the poem consist of mostly descrion of the little adventures this creature goes on. It makes it so that the reader has a close connection to the creature and you want it to succeed. It showes that sometimes the worst, hardest, and scariest of events can be the most defining and sometimes you can remember every painstaking detail of them. The creature is doing its best, and it didn't do too well, but it remembers all of the details because it was a defining journey.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 1: It seems that the man-moth has lost himself. The poem portrays the lifestyle of the man-moth which would be in an urban subway. In the beginning of the second stanza, "the man-moth pays his rare, although occasional, visits to the surface," (10). So the man-moth is mostly isolated in his time. The man-moth doesn't seem to be going his own path considering that, "the Man-Moth always seats himself facing the wrong way," (29). He is not doing what he wants, he is just one with the people around him, he blends in, in the urban area with plenty of other people. The man calls the train station his home, but lost his individuality as a person. The poem really addresses the theme by mentioning how often he comes out, and his little fears. Overall the poem shows how lost the man-moth is and how the urban landscape affects or reacts to him.
ReplyDeleteQuestion #2
ReplyDeleteThis poem shows how fog is an entity that is like a cat with its "cat feet" just sitting at a harbor. It represents how fog appears to us fro a small amount of time making everything hard to see, but then it just vanishes. This is personification.
Gleb Istlentyev