By: Karl Shapiro

1
The Fly

• By Karl Shapiro

2
Background Info

• Karl Shapiro was born on November 10, 1913
• Graduated from John Hopkins University in 1939
• Served in the military for WWII
• Shapiro wrote poems while in the army, then
  mailed them to his fiancé who took the poems so
  they could be published
• Won Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1945 for V-Letter
  other poems written when he was stationed in
  New Guinea while he was still serving in the army
• Died in New York City on May 14, 2000

3
The Fly

• O hideous little bat, the size of snot,
• With polyhedral eye and shabby clothes,
• To populate the stinking cat you walk
• The promontory of the dead mans nose,
• Climb with the fine leg an Duncan-Phyfe
• The smoking mountains of my food
• And in a comic mood
• In mid-air take to bed a wife

4
Analysis

• Shapiro uses personification imagery- flys
  dont have clothes and are not comical and the
  poem rhymes and you can see what the fly looks
  like in your head With polyhedral eye and shabby
  clothes,
• Shapiro uses the fly instead of a person that he
  is angry and mad at.
• Very angry and dark poem.
• Polyhedral- many based
• Promontory- high point of land or rock projecting
  into the sea or other water.
• Duncan-Phyfe- finely made furniture

5
The Fly...

• Riding and riding with your filth of hair
• On gluey foot or wing, forever coy,
• Hot from the compost and green sweet decay,
• Sounding your buzzer like an urchin toy-
• You dot all whiteness with diminutive stool,
• In the tight belly of the dead
• Burrow with hungry head
• And inlay maggots like a jewel.

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Analysis

• Enjambed rhyme Riding, riding with your filth of
  hair Sounding your buzzer like an urchin toy
• Simile Sounding your buzzer like an urchin toy
  and And inlay your maggots like a jewel.
• Very descriptive of the fly filth of hair On
  gluey foot or wing

7
The Fly...

• At your approach the great horse stomps and paws
• Bringing the hurricane of his heavy tail
• Shod in disease you dare to kiss my hand
• Which sweeps against you like an angry flail
• Still you return, return, trusting your wing
• To draw you from the hunters reach
• That learns to kill to teach
• Disorder to the tinier thing.

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Analysis

• At your approach the great horse stomps and paws
  bringing the hurricane or his heavy tail.
  Metaphor- When the fly comes near me, I turn
  into an angry animal, or creature
• Metaphor- Shod in disease you dare to kiss my
  hand. Meaning Dont suck up to me
• Which sweeps against you like an angry flail
  Simile- You sucking up is going to haunt you, and
  harm you like an instrument for cutting grains.
• Still you return, return, trusting your wing to
  draw from the hunters reach. Metaphor- The fly
  keeps angering me, and relies on his body to get
  out of his trouble, and to fly away from me.
• Paradox- That learns to kill to teach disorder to
  the tinier thing. Meaning I will teach you a
  lesson by killing you but killing doesnt really
  teach lessons.

9
The Fly...

• My peace is your disaster. For your death
• Children like spiders cup their pretty hands
• And wives resort to chemistry of war.
• In fens of sticky paper and quicksands
• You glue yourself to death. Where you are stuck
• You struggle hideously and beg,
• You amputate your leg
• Imbedded in the amber muck.

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Analysis

• Stanza uses personification.
• My peace is your disaster My happiness in your
  sorrow.
• For your death children like spiders cup their
  pretty hands Simile- Only little children are
  interested in your death.
• And wives resort to chemistry of war.
  Assonance- wouldnt normally think wives or women
  would be in war.
• In fens of sticky paper and quicksands Meaning
  people try to kill you everyday through tricks.
  Like strategies of war.
• You glue yourself to death. Where you are
  stuck. You kill yourself and are trapped.
• You struggle hideously and beg, You beg for
  mercy

11
The Fly...

• But I, a man, must swat you with my hate,
• Slap you across the air and crush your flight,
• Must mangle with my shoe and smear your blood,
• Expose your little gut pasty and white,
• Knock your head sidewise like a drunkards hat,
• Pin your wings under like a crows
• Tear off your flimsy clothes,
• And beat you as one beats a rat.

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Analysis

• But I, a man, must swat you with my hate.
• Slap you across the air and crush your
  flight Meaning that I must take the pain you
  gave me and take it out on you.
• Knock your head sidewise like a drunkards hat
  Simile- I punch you to the side.
• Pin your wings under like a crows Simile- I
  trap you by your wings so you have no escape.

13
The Fly...

• Then like Gargantua I stride among
• The corpses strewn like raisins in the dust,
• The broken bodies of the narrow dead
• That catch the throat with fingers of disgust.
• I sweep. One gyrates like a top and falls
• And stunned, stone blind, and deaf
• Buzzes its frightful F
• And dies between three cannibals

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Analysis

• Then like Gargantua I stride among the corpses
  strewn like raisins in the dust. Allusion
  Simile- I forcefully walk like a giant among the
  dead bits of dead bodies, crushing them.
• The broken bodies of the narrow dead that catch
  the throat with fingers of disgust. Internal
  Rhyme- Many people have been killed because of
  revenge.
• I sweep. One gyrates like a top falls and
  stunned, stone blind, and deaf buzzes of
  frightful F and dies between three cannibals.
  Simile- I turn around and many times , and I
  become shocked. Enjambed Rhyme- The fly tries to
  get away from my anger, and is then killed.

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The End!

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