Poem of the Day: ‘The Lesson of the Moth’

Archy was a modern poetry cockroach: a human vers-libre poet who “died and went / into a cockroach’s body,” as he explains in a 1927 poem called “the cockroach who had been to hell.” Having transmigrated in this way, the poor cockroach could write only by throwing himself at the keys of a typewriter, which created some eccentricities of capitalization and punctuation. But on he pressed, from 1916 through 1935, giving America’s readers the benefit of his take on public events, his friends (especially an alley cat named Mehitabel), and the power of art.Or so at least we were told by Don Marquis (1878–1937), a columnist for The New York Sun, who created Archy in 1916 as a character who offered tidbits and poetry that he could feature in his column. Marquis first collected the poems in book form in the 1927 “archy and mehitabel,” illustrated by George Herriman (creator of the Krazy Kat comic strip). Two later volumes would follow — “archys life of mehitabel” (1933) and “archy does his part” (1935) — after Marquis had moved to the Tribune.This past summer, we selected “archy confesses” as Poem of the Day, although it was really a rhymed and metered poem. Today’s poem, one of the lighter verses the Sun offers on Wednesdays, is much more straightforwardly vers libre: a free verse account of moth who, in Archy’s view, is too intent on frying himself on electric lights — and yet, “at the same time i wish / there was something i wanted / as badly.”The Lesson of the Mothby Don Marquisi was talking to a moththe other eveninghe was trying to break intoan electric light bulband fry himself on the wireswhy do you fellowspull this stunt i asked himbecause it is the conventionalthing for moths or whyif that had been an uncoveredcandle instead of an electriclight bulb you wouldnow be a small unsightly cinderhave you no senseplenty of it he answeredbut at times we get tiredof using itwe get bored with the routineand crave beautyand excitementfire is beautifuland we know that if we gettoo close it will kill usbut what does that matterit is better to be happyfor a momentand be burned up with beautythan to live a long timeand be bored all the whileso we wad all our life upinto one little rolland then we shoot the rollthat is what life is forit is better to be a part of beautyfor one instant and then cease toexist than to exist foreverand never be a part of beautyour attitude toward lifeis come easy go easywe are like human beingsused to be before they becametoo civilized to enjoy themselvesand before i could argue himout of his philosophyhe went and immolated himselfon a patent cigar lighteri do not agree with himmyself i would rather havehalf the happiness and twicethe longevitybut at the same time i wishthere was something i wantedas badly as he wanted to fry himselfarchy___________________________________________With “Poem of the Day,” The New York Sun offers a daily portion of verse selected by Joseph Bottum with the help of the North Carolina poet Sally Thomas, the Sun’s associate poetry editor. Tied to the day, or the season, or just individual taste, the poems are drawn from the deep traditions of English verse: the great work of the past and the living poets who keep those traditions alive. The goal is always to show that poetry can still serve as a delight to the ear, an instruction to the mind, and a tonic for the soul.

Poem of the Day: ‘The Lesson of the Moth’

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