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What Is The Mood Of The Poem The Fly Karl Shapiro

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What Is The Mood Of The Poem The Fly Karl Shapiro
Throughout the poem “The Fly” by Karl Shapiro, each stanza ends in an A-B-B-A rhyme scheme. The author begins by describing the life of the fly, then switches to describing the death of the fly. Each stanza contains many gruesome and negative words. Karl Shapiro uses word choice and mood to convey the theme that by judging too soon and making brisk decisions can lead to regret.
In the first three stanzas, Karl Shapiro starts off by grotesquely judging the life of the fly. He does this by using the literary device of word choice. “... hideous...size of snot...stinking...” (stanza 1) “ … diminutive stool...maggots…” (stanza 2) “ … hurricane...disease…angry...kill…” (stanza 3) By using negative words in each stanza, the author jumps to the conclusion that the creature is just disgusting. This develops the …show more content…
The pitiful mood towards the fly begins when the author describes the fly's death in detail. “ ...slap you across the aire and crush your flight, must mangle with my shoe and smear your blood, expose your little guts pasty and white...tear off your flimsy clothes and beat you as one beats a rat.” (stanza 5) The despairing mood is present, because of the preposterous description used, for regret is in the air from making a hasty decision to kill the fly.
In the poem “The Fly,” word choice and mood of Karl Shapiro help develop the theme of judging too soon and making hasty decisions can lead to regret and sorrow. In stanza one through three, the first part of judging to quick is developed by making conclusions that the fly is gruesome. Then a switch happens to describing the death of the fly, where the second part of the theme, making brisk decision, is put into place. Finally in the last two stanzas, the theme is fully developed into judging too soon and making hasty decisions can lead to regret and
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