The Fly

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2003

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“The Fly” consists of six stanzas of eight lines each, or octaves. Each octave follows similar rhyme and metrical structures. With minor variations, the poem’s octaves begin with five lines of iambic pentameter followed be one line of iambic tetrameter, one line of iambic trimeter, and a final line of iambic tetrameter. An iamb is a single metrical foot consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. The line “That Learns to kill to teach” (Line 23), for instance, is made up of three iambs. Pentameter, tetrameter, and trimeter refer to the lines having five, four, and three of such feet, respectively.

With the exception of the first octave, which follows an ABABCDDC rhyme scheme, every stanza rhymes ABCBDEED. In these later stanzas, the first and third lines tend to share a semantic field, such as “paws” (Line 17) and “hand” (Line 19) or “death” (Line 25) and “war” (Line 27). In this way, the ABABCDDC rhyme scheme of the first stanza continues semantically. Though the poem’s structure is fairly untraditional, its adherence to a relatively strict stanzaic structure and rhyme scheme distinguishes it from much of the contemporary experimental poetry.

Metaphor and Simile

Shapiro’s speaker makes ample use of metaphor and simile in describing the world around him. A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two objects through equation or substitution. Calling the fly a “hideous little bat” (Line 1), for instance, is a metaphor comparing the two creatures. A simile, however, suggests a looser connection between the things being compared. Typically, similes compare the two things using the words “like” or “as.

In “The Fly,” the speaker alternates between metaphors and similes depending on his confidence in the connection. The speaker uses metaphor most notably when describing the fly’s stature or filthiness—such as the descriptions of the “hurricane” (Line 18) or the fly’s “shabby clothes” (Line 2). When things approach the speaker either emotionally or physically, he struggles to make the same direct connections. The children become “like spiders” (Line 26, emphasis added), rather than merely spiders, due to the speaker’s hesitance to fully equate them with the loathsome insects. Likewise, the fly’s maggots become “like a jewel” (Line 16), rather than merely jewels, because an element of disgust precludes a full equivalence.

Personification

Many of the above metaphors and similes work to humanize the fly or dehumanize the speaker and his own species. The humanizing work is done through personification, or the attribution of human qualities and behaviors to nonhuman objects or creatures. This personification takes a number of explicit and implicit forms in Shapiro’s poem. The speaker’s insistence on calling the fly’s skin “clothes” (Lines 2, 39) and the fly’s mate a “wife” (Line 8) are some of the more obvious examples. But the speaker’s personification of the fly is nearly constant and appears even in the word “amputate” (Line 31), which suggests a clinical, medical maneuver.

The speaker also assigns the fly humanlike emotions and agency—the fly “beg[s]” (Line 30), is “coy” (Line 10), has “comic mood[s]” (Line 7), and “dare[s] to kiss [the speaker’s] hand” (Line 19). These observations attribute a rich emotional life to the fly. Similarly, the speaker’s resolution to “teach / Disorder to the tinier thing” (Lines 23-24) assumes the fly’s ability to learn.