19 pages • 38 minutes read
Don MarquisThe Lesson of the Moth
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1927A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Consumptive Beauty
Beauty is among the most significant themes in “the lesson of the moth.” Much of the moth’s response to Archy hinges on the importance of beauty as something worth creating and pursuing. The moth gives two main reasons for his desire to “fry himself on the wires” (Line 5). The first is that he “crave[s] beauty” (Line 19), and the second is that he craves “excitement” (Line 20). Excitement does not make another appearance in the moth’s response except by its opposites like boredom and “routine” (Lines 29, 18). Beauty, meanwhile, comes up five times during the moth’s speech (Lines 19, 21, 27, 34, 37). It is implied that the desire that Archy envies in the moth at the end of the poem is a desire for beauty, considering that the line “and crave beauty” (Line 19) is the line to directly state that the moth is behaving this way out of a craving, or desire.
If beauty is not the main theme of “the lesson of the moth,” it is at least the main focus of the moth’s speech. However, the moth’s conception of beauty is complicated by the fact that the only way that the moth seems to know how to “be a part of beauty” (Line 34) is to self-immolate. This means that the “beauty” the moth discusses is not quite the same as the common conception of the word. Not only is the moth’s “beauty” an end in itself and valuable outside of the beholder, but it is also inherently consumptive. As the moth states, “it is better to be happy / for a moment / and be burned up with beauty” (Lines 25-27). In Line 27, as well as Lines 34-36, beauty is interchangeable with the flame that consumes the moth. Beauty, in this poem, is something that burns up its creator, something that draws their energy as a fire does.
Convention Versus Novelty
Another, somewhat contradictory, aspect of the chaotic modern life of the 1920s and 1930s was boredom. The chaos of modernity was largely intellectual and, therefore, created a generation of people with overactive minds and relatively little to do. This generation is frequently called the “Lost Generation,” a term coined by American poet Gertrude Stein and later co-opted by Ernest Hemingway. The descriptor “lost” is generally understood to mean that the generation was aimless, wandering, and in search of something new. The modernist spirit of making things new in art and philosophy appealed to a generation disillusioned by the First World War and prompted a reinvestigation of accepted conventions and traditions outside of art and philosophy.
This ongoing struggle between convention and novelty plays out in “the lesson of the moth.” Archy is a traditionalist of sorts. His first assumption is that the moths try to immolate themselves “because it is the conventional / thing for moths” (Lines 9-8) to do. Archy later makes it clear that he wants a traditional, routine life with “half the happiness and twice / the longevity” (Lines 49-50). Archy also interacts with the moth’s response in a traditional, philosophical way. While the moth seeks novelty in the actualization of his beliefs, Archy wants to “argue him” (Line 43). The moth, meanwhile, explicitly states that he is “bored with the routine / and crave[s] beauty / and excitement” (Lines 18-20). Rather than to “live a long time / and be bored all the while” (Lines 28-29), the moth would rather consume his life in one novel, beautiful burst of flame.
Freedom Versus Civilization
Marquis’s “the lesson of the moth” comments on the flaws of contemporary civilization. This critique is most explicit in the turn at the end of the moth’s response, when he states that “we are like human beings / used to be before they became / too civilized to enjoy themselves” (Lines 40-42). The tone of this critique, and the fact the poem leaves it largely unexplored, suggests that the commentary would be uncontroversial—or at least familiar—to Marquis’s readership.
Though the two characters in “the lesson of the moth” are relatively uncivilized insects, Marquis’s commentary on contemporary civilization and technology still comes through in his use of imagery and objects. For instance, the poem treats the “electric light bulb” (Line 4), the “uncovered / candle” (Lines 10-11), and the “patent cigar lighter” (Line 46) quite differently from one another. If one takes the moth’s perspective, the electric light bulb’s technology not only prevents him from enacting his philosophy but almost makes such an enactment criminal. The act of self-immolation for beauty’s sake would require the moth to “break into” (Line 4) the bulb. Archy’s use of the phrase “break into” (Line 4), which is the same used to describe the criminal act of breaking and entering, suggests the destructive and taboo nature of the moth’s philosophy in the face of modern civilization and modern technology. Meanwhile, the older technology of the “uncovered / candle” (Lines 10-11) allows the moth to “be burned up with beauty” (Line 27) without any trouble.
It would be a stretch to claim Marquis endorses the moth’s perspective. In the poem, however, technological advancement, and maybe even civilization as a whole, works contrary to one’s individual freedom of expression and aesthetic creation. Archy’s use of reason could also be understood as having a similar restrictive function. In the second stanza, for example, Archy thinks that if the moth had more “sense” (Line 14) he would express himself differently.
