“the lesson of the moth” was published in 1927 and is one of Don Marquis’s most well-known poems. The work is a free-verse persona poem in which Marquis occupies one of his most famous fictional poetic characters, Archy—a cockroach who, in a past life, was a free-verse poet. Archy the cockroach, along with Mehitabel the alley cat, is among Marquis’s most famous creations and has appeared in many of his poems and stories during his time as a newspaper editor.

The poem’s narrative premise (that a cockroach could compose and type a poem on a typewriter by jumping on the keys, but would be unable to make any capital letters or punctuation) gives it a lighthearted tone, but the “the lesson of the moth” still explores serious philosophical questions about beauty, civilization, and the proper way to live one’s life. Archy’s free-verse style resembles many of Marquis’s contemporary American and European modernists.

Poet Biography

Donald Robert Perry Marquis was born July 29, 1878 in Walnut, Illinois. He graduated from Walnut High School in 1894 and for three months in 1896 attended a preparatory program in an academy attached to Knox College before leaving school. Marquis’s older brother, David, died at the age of 20, while Marquis was still in high school. His father, James, died in 1897, shortly after Marquis left Knox College.

Marquis joined the editorial board of the Atlanta Journal in 1902 and worked there until 1907. Two years later, he married his first wife, Reina Melcher, with whom he went on to have two children. Marquis worked at various locations until, in 1912, he began working as an editor at the popular New York newspaper The Evening Sun, where he edited a daily column called “The Sun Dial.” The column was a quick success, and Marquis went on to edit the column for 11 years.

1912 was also the year that Marquis published his first literary work, the novel Danny’s Own Story. Though Marquis is mostly remembered for his work as a poet and an editor, he also published five novels, six collections of short stories, and produced five plays. Marquis left The Evening Sun in 1922 and went to work for the New York Herald Tribune, where he also met success. At the apex of Marquis’s career, he contributed to the Saturday Evening Post, Harper’s, Scribner’s, and Cosmopolitan.

Marquis’s wife, Reina, died in 1923. In 1926, Marquis married the actress Marjorie Potts Vonnegut. Marjorie died in her sleep 10 years later. Marquis continued working until the end of his life, though his output dwindled near the end after suffering a number of strokes that left him partially disabled. Marquis died in New York City on December 29, 1937. His last literary work, Sons of the Puritans, was released in 1939.

Poem Text

Marquis, Don. “the lesson of the moth.” 1927. Poly Archive.

Summary

Though it is never stated in the poem itself, readers of Don Marquis’s column “The Sun Dial” would have metatextual information—or information from another text—about the poem and its implied author. Archy, the persona that Marquis adopts in the poem, is a free-verse poet who has been reincarnated as a cockroach. Archy is a mainstay of Marquis’s work as a columnist and poet, and some of his most famous poems, including “the lesson of the moth,” are Archy’s creation. This information about Archy is essential to understanding the point of view and imagery presented “the lesson of the moth.”

The poem is a straightforward account of a chance meeting between Archy and a moth “the other evening” (Line 2). The moth, when Archy comes across him, is “trying to break into / an electric light bulb / and fry himself on the wires” (Lines 3-5). This behavior, from Archy’s point of view as a cockroach, is nonsensical, and Archy asks in the second stanza if the moth can explain himself and his “fellows” (Line 6). Archy points out that if the light bulb had been “an uncovered / candle” (Lines 10-11), the moth’s action would have resulted in its death, and he asks if the moth has “no sense” (Line 14).

The third stanza presents the moth’s response to Archy. The moth first states that he has “plenty” (Line 15) of sense but that he “get[s] tired / of using it” (Lines 16-17) at times. The moth then defends his actions despite their danger by arguing in favor of “beauty” (Line 19) and “excitement” (Line 20) over boring “routine” (Lines 18). This argument culminates in the moth’s statement that “it is better to be a part of beauty / for one instant [...] than to exist forever / and never be a part of beauty” (Lines 34-37).

Archy tries to dissuade the moth of his philosophy in the second-last stanza, but before he can engage the moth’s ideas, the moth “immolate[s] himself / on a patent cigar lighter” (Lines 45-46). Archy then makes it clear that he does “not agree with” (Line 47) the moth and that he would “rather have / half the happiness and twice / the longevity” (Lines 48-50). In the last stanza, Archy seems to waver on this claim. He admires the moth’s desire and wishes that “there was something [he] wanted / as badly as [the moth] wanted to fry himself” (Lines 52-53).