The Man-Moth Summary & Analysis
by Elizabeth Bishop

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"The Man-Moth" tells the story of an elusive, city-dwelling creature who lives underground and only emerges at night. The Man-Moth climbs buildings in an attempt to reach the moon, which he thinks is a hole in the sky, but fails every time. Later, he returns home via "silent" subway trains on which he doesn't speak to anyone. The poem's surreal imagery allows for many interpretations, but its themes broadly revolve around perseverance, ambition, hope, and disappointment. The enigmatic Man-Moth seems detached from everyone around him, and his lonely surroundings further evoke the hollowness of urban life. In his relentless compulsion to reach the moon, the Man-Moth might also symbolize the artist's compulsion to create. "The Man-Moth" appeared in Bishop's 1946 collection North and South, but she wrote the poem about a decade earlier while in her 20s and living in Manhattan—a place that proved formative for her career but which she also found deeply isolating. The title was inspired by a newspaper typo for "mammoth."

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