THE COCKROACH BY KELVIN HALLIGAN Presentation by Mutale

THE COCKROACH BY KELVIN HALLIGAN Presentation by Mutale Chewe

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Kelvin Halligan is a Canadian poet. He was born in 1964 in Canada but spent most of his time in the England. He travelled a lot and wrote the poem ‘The Cockroach’, on one of his jaunts to Asia. The poem cockroach is part of his collection which is called: “Blossom Street, ” to which ‘The Cockroach’ received the most recognition. There is not much information on his personal life and he describes his own life in the poem.

POEM I watched a giant cockroach start to pace, Skirting a ball of dust that rode the floor. At first he seemed quite satisfied to trace A path between the wainscot and the door, But soon he started to jog in crooked rings, Circling the dusty table leg and back, And flipping right over to scratch his wings. As 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 vicious crime A former life had led to? I don't know, Except I thought I recognised myself.

LITERARY TERMS The writer uses a lot of personification to talk about the cockroach

STRUCTURE/IMPORTANCE OF WRITING It is a Sonnet as it has 14 lines This poem has an iambic pentameter It has an irregular rhyming scheme of abab cdcd efg egf It is a mixture of both an Italian and Shakespearean Sonnet: It has 2 quatrains which added together make an octave of: abab cdcd enabling them to be an English/Shakespearean Sonnet And a sestet of efg egfe enabling it to qualify as a Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet 1. I watched a giant cockroach start to pace, 2. Skirting a ball of dust that rode the floor. 3. At first he seemed quite satisfied to trace 4. A path between the wainscot and the door, 5. But soon he started to jog in crooked rings, 6. Circling the dusty table leg and back, 7. And flipping right over to scratch his wings 8. As if the victim of a mild attack 9. Of restlessness that worsened over time. 10. After a while, he climbed an open shelf 11. And stopped. He looked uncertain where to go. 12. Was this due payment for some vicious crime 13. A former life had led to? I don't know, 14. Except I thought I recognised myself.

THEMES The theme of this poem is Person vs. Self as the character has a problem deciding what to do in the situation. To be specific, in this poem the character (cockroach) has a problem deciding what to do in his situation when he has finally reached his ‘destination’ at the top of the shelf – but now, he hesitates as he does not know what to do. This is showcased in lines 10 and 11: After a while, he climbed an open shelf And stopped. He looked uncertain where to go.

ANALYSIS It is an extended metaphor of the persona (the poet himself) or human beings as a whole This is first hinted by the fact that the cockroach is ‘giant’ – is it large for its species, or large to the point it is the size of a human? He gives the cockroach human characteristics such as: ‘jog’, ‘trace’, ‘circle’ which are more of what a human being would do than that a cockroach would.

ANALYSIS In lines 3 -11 he describes the frantic actions of a human being: How we are content with our situations (at first he seemed quite satisfied to trace) And then after a while, he gets bored (but soon he turned to jog in crooked rings) He is then struck by a case of restlessness, but then finally finds something exciting, new – the open shelf

ANALYSIS When he reached the open shelf, he begin to question himself of whether what he’d come for was worth it In the last two lines, the writer shows the turn (solution to the problem) and the cockroach personifies the character of the poet/human being as he asked: ‘A former life had led to? I don’t know, Except I thought I recognised myself. ’