The Cockroach

By Kevin Halligan

Kevin Halligan
The poem is written by a Canadian writer called Kevin Halligan. He wrote the text in a trip that he had done to Asia. Kevin Halligan was born in in 1964 He regards himself as an Anglophile and has spent long periods living in England.. His collection Blossom Street is based on his travels and he often observes alien counties with detailed fascination. In this poem he apparently focuses an intense concentration on an insect, but in a powerful twist of focus the whole poem flips back to reveal that the poet himself is actually the subject

Main theme

The poem describes a cockroach and compares it with the humans. The main theme of the poem is a existential one. It talks about the meaning of life. It mentions that the cockroach is cycling, and he don't know where he can go. We can interpret this as if the cockroach life doesn't have a sense.

The tone and mood

You can see that the poem uses a dry humorous mood to tell the story. Telling serious message in a ironic way in typical in AngloSaxon cultures.

Poem scheme
The poem consist of one verse. At the

beginning talks in first person, describing the actions of the cockroach. Later he " take the place" of the insect. With this we obtain the reflection of the author his life taking as reference the life of cockroach. In this reflection he takes account of the meaning of life of the human comparing it with the cockroach ones, crimes that he commits, etc. The rhyming scheme is A,B,A,B,C,D,C,D,E,F,G,E,H,F. Theres no alliteration.

I watched a giant cockroach start to pace, Skirting a ball of dust that road the floor. At first he seemed quite satisfied to trace A path between the wainscot and the door, But soon he turned to jog in crooked rings, Circling the rusty table leg and back, And flipping right over to scratch his wingsAs if the victim of a mild attack Of restlessness that worsened over time. After a while, he climbed an open shelf And stopped. He looked uncertain where to go. Was this due payment for some

Metaphor
We supposed that the name of the

poem can be consider as a metaphor because is comparing it with himself. Also we can say that when the author talks about the trip of cockroach is a metaphor because it can be consider as a way to represent the human life. Where we have to do many choices and in many times we don't know where we can go.

The cockroach can be compared

with Circe by Cortzar in which the main character Delia uses the cockroach to kill her boyfriend. We can also compare it with a book called Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in which the character has a twist in his personalities as in the poem. And has an anglo-axon ascent

Conclusion
Kevin Halligan describes a coakroach running

around the room. We could recognize that the idea of the poem is to compare the cockroach with humans. The author also uses rhymes and metaphors.