The Man-Moth (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Elizabeth Bishop
- First Published: 1936
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, New York City, City life, Death or dying, Subways, Ambition, Existentialism, Loneliness, Enlightenment, Moon or moons, Moths
The Poem
“The Man-Moth,” by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Elizabeth Bishop, is an early work; it was written when she first lived in New York City in 1935. The idea for this poem came to her from a misprinting of the word “mammoth” as “manmoth” in a newspaper. She was inspired to imagine what sort of creature this might be. The Man-Moth of the poem is a mysterious nocturnal inhabitant of the city—half man, half moth—whose fearful, obsessive actions represent the city’s interior, imaginative life. The poem is a dreamlike fantasy that works as a fable or allegory...
[The entire page is 1552 words long]
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