The Lesson of the Moth

Like with most personified animals in poetry and literature, the particular species of Marquis’s creations have a powerful symbolic meaning. Marquis uses the symbolic weight of Archy’s and the moth’s respective species to add depth to the poem.

Archy’s first appearance in “The Coming of Archy” is explained by Marquis leaving a piece of paper in his typewriter overnight. Both cockroaches and moths are understood to be nocturnal creatures. Therefore, the two species share some symbolic similarities. A major distinction between them, however, is that cockroaches are generally considered ugly and undesirable, while moths are considered more beautiful. These associations play a role in each character’s relationship with beauty.

Cockroaches are also scavengers and infamously difficult to kill, which is reflected in Archy’s conviction that he would rather have “half the happiness and twice / the longevity” (Lines 49-50). Meanwhile, moths are typically associated with dreams and death, which, in addition to their beauty and their habit of flying toward open flames, makes them the perfect representation of the poem’s idea of consumptive beauty.

Light and light sources play a key role in “the lesson of the moth.” The light source of the “electric / light bulb” (Lines 11-12) is the occasion for the poem, and light is one of the main sources of imagery and narrative discussion. Light is also the intermediary between the poem’s nocturnal setting and its emphasis on beauty. Sources of light, in the poem, seem to embody what the moth means when he discusses beauty.

Light is a contextual symbol for the moth’s conception of beauty. The moth makes this connection clear when he states that “fire is beautiful” (Line 21). The line is the closest thing that the poem has to a description of what the moth finds beautiful, and so it is easy to equate light sources with beauty.

The symbol of light differentiates into yet more symbols: The fire, as a source of light, is among the most expansive symbols in the poem and holds further allusion to antiquity. The image of the moth’s immolation—to “be burned up with beauty” (Like 27)—is a deliberately and comically erotic image; the Platonic eros, a famously burning desire, is what propels the soul toward truth, leading the mind from the perception of image to the contemplation of Platonic forms (the true source of beauty, in Plato’s mythos).

However, the fire is also a subtle allusion to Aeschylus’ tragedy Prometheus Bound, in which the Titan Prometheus, taking pity on humankind, steals fire from Zeus and gives it to humans, leading to their empowerment through civilizing technology. The allusion is blatantly ironic, as the moth asserts that “[moths] are like human beings / used to be before they became / too civilized to enjoy themselves” (Lines 40-42). The allusion is also part of the poem’s modernist spirit; the myth of Prometheus is so intimately associated with modernizing forces that “promethean” has become a synonym for technological progressiveness.