18 pages • 36 minutes read
Karl ShapiroThe Fly
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2003A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
"The Flea"by John Donne (1633)
One of the most famous English-language poems about an insect, John Donne’s “The Flea” uses a flea in an extended metaphor in a larger argument about the nature of physical love. Donne’s speaker stands at a rhetorical distance from the insect, and the poem’s language has more emotional restraint than Shapiro’s. Both poets see their respective insects as symbols of life, death, and sexual union.
"On a Fly drinking out of his Cup" by William Oldys (1732)
Oldys is best known as the first editor of the Biographia Britannica, a role he occupied from 1747 until his death in 1761. His “On a Fly drinking out of his Cup” showcases a powerful compassion between speaker and fly. The speaker of Oldys’s poem encourages the fly to “[d]rink with me and drink as I” (Line 2), and views the fly as having equal value to himself. Like in many poems about flies, Oldys’s fly is a sign of death. But the fly’s inevitable reminder of death brings Oldys’s speaker closer to the creature, stating, “Both alike are mine and thine / Hastening quick to their decline” (Lines 5-6).
The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot (1922)
T. S. Eliot is one of the major figures in the Modernist movement and one of Shapiro’s early influences. Though there is little in common between “The Fly” and Eliot’s “The Waste Land” in terms of form or subject matter, both poets use various levels and types of diction throughout their respective works. These changes of diction, called code-switching in linguistics, are much clearer in Eliot’s poem, where the speaker(s) navigates not only high and low dictions but entirely different languages.
"The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop (1946)
Published four years after “The Fly,” “The Fish” showcases the struggle between humans and nonhuman animals in a much different light. Fish carry different symbolism than Shapiro’s fly, and Elizabeth Bishop demonstrates an alternative way to engage with nonhuman animals. Bishop imagines her fish as a veteran in the war between humans and animals, with hooks “[l]ike medals with their ribbons / frayed and wavering” (Lines 61-62). The speaker of Bishop’s poem presents the fish’s value in a way that Shapiro’s speaker can only suggest.
Further Literary Resources
“The Entomology of English Poetry” by W. R. Walton (1922)
Shapiro’s “The Fly” borrows heavily from the rich history of insects and their place in Western semiotics. Published twenty years before Shapiro's poem, this comprehensive study by W. R. Walton is one of the earliest investigations of insect imagery in English poetry. Though Walton focuses primarily on Shakespeare and other Renaissance writers, the insect’s role in literature has remained largely consistent.
“War Poet: Karl Shapiro’s ‘Tearless Lesson’” by Sean Murphy (2017)
This article acts as a short retrospective of Shapiro’s work, focusing in particular on Shapiro’s 1944 collection V-Letter and Other Poems, which won Shapiro the Pulitzer Prize early in his career. Murphy links to the report made by the Pulitzer Prize jury in 1945, when Shapiro won the award. The article also details some of the larger trends in Shapiro’s writing over his career.
“The Alphabet” by Adam Kirsch (2020)
Shapiro’s Jewish heritage is an essential part of his life and cultural impact. As Kirsch’s article points out, Shapiro directly engages with his Jewish identity in many of his poems, including “The Alphabet.” Shapiro was the first Jewish writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, which he did with works informed by his cultural roots.
Listen to Poem
SpokenVerse provides a clear and articulate reading of Shapiro’s poem. The reader’s close attention to the work’s meter highlights the stanzas’ structure and how they spiral to an end much like the poem’s fly.
