Mosquito Rage
Pesty Insect Poems
Jane Anderson Jones
September 2002
Table of Contents
Introduction
Poems
from “The Adironacs” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The Mosquito” by D.H. Lawrence
“Veto” by Don Blanding
“Awakened by a Mosquito in the Villa Aurelia” by Philip Guston
and Musa McKim
“Mosquito” by Lorna Whitelaw/Anderson
“Mosquitos” by David Chorlton
“A Mosquito Sings at 4:30 A.M., Minnesota” by Stephen Morse
“Mosquito” by Jeanne Murray Walker
“Mosquito Poem” by Nancy Botkin
“insect airlines - we never run out of fuel” by Richard Zola
“Mosquito” by Myronn Hardy
Poets
Mosquito Evasion
Bibliography
3
4
5
10
11
12
13
15
16
17
18
19
21
27
28
Fig. 1. The parts of a mosquito. Freundenrich. “How Mosquitos
Work.” Marshall Brain’s How Stuff Works. 20 Sept. 2002
< http://www.howstuffworks.com/mosquito.htm/printable >
Introduction
The Introduction should discuss how the theme of the
anthology is revealed in the selections. The editor may decide
to compare and contrast some poems, point out different
techniques used by the poets to address the theme, and/or
discuss cultural differences among the poets, among other
possible topics. Biography of the poets should NOT be
discussed in the Introduction. This is a critical, analytical
introduction, hence there should be no use of 1st (I, we) or 2nd
(you) person. If you use critical sources for information, they
must be documented according to MLA Guidelines. Discuss the
poetry, not why you chose it. 750-1000 words.
from The Adironacs
Hard fare, hard bed and comic misery,
The midge, the blue-fly and the mosquito
Painted our necks, hands, ankles, with
red bands:
But, on the second day, we heed them
not,
Nays we saluted them Auxiliaries,
Whom earlier we had chid with spiteful
names.
For who defends our leafy tabernacle
From bold intrusion of the travelling
crowd,
Who but the midge, mosquito and the fly,
Which past endurance sting the tender
cit,
But which we learn to scatter with a
smudge,
Or baffle by a veil, or slight by scorn?
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1858
In the introduction to The Adironacs,
Emerson gives the occasion for the poem:
“In August, 1858, Mr. William J. Stillman,
an artist by profession, but a man almost of
the versatility in accomplishment of The
Admirable Crichton, as painter, writer,
critic, foreign consul (in which service he
showed himself a chivalrous Philhellene),
and last, not least, an accomplished
woodsman and hunter, led a party of his
friends into the then primæval forest of the
Adirondac Mountains. The party were,
Stillman, Agassiz, Lowell, Judge Hoar, Dr.
Jeffries Wyman, the comparative
anatomist; Samuel G. Ward, a near friend
of Mr. Emerson's; Dr. Estes Howe, John
Holmes (brother of Dr. Oliver Wendell
Holmes), Horatio Woodman, Dr. Amos
Binney, and Emerson.”
(Notes)
Sources of information must be
cited in parenthetical citations
Mosquito
When did you start your tricks
Monsieur?
What do you stand on such high legs for?
Why this length of shredded shank
You exaltation?
Is it so that you shall lift your centre of gravity
upwards
And weigh no more than air as you alight upon me,
Stand upon me weightless, you phantom?
I heard a woman call you the Winged Victory
In sluggish Venice.
You turn your head towards your tail, and smile.
How can you put so much devilry
Into that translucent phantom shred
Of a frail corpus?
Winged Victory: The Winged
Victory of Samothrace, a
statue of Nike, the Greek
Goddess of Victory, is found
in the Louvre Museum in
Paris.
Queer, with your thin wings and your streaming legs
How you sail like a heron, or a dull clot of air,
A nothingness.
Yet what an aura surrounds you;
Your evil little aura, prowling, and casting a numbness on my mind.
That is your trick, your bit of filthy magic:
Invisibility, and the anæsthetic power
To deaden my attention in your direction.
But I know your game now, streaky sorcerer.
The conceit of the
mosquito as sorcerer runs
throughout much of the
poem.
Queer, how you stalk and prowl the air
In circles and evasions, enveloping me,
Ghoul on wings
Winged Victory.
Settle, and stand on long thin shanks
Eyeing me sideways, and cunningly conscious that I am aware,
You speck.
I hate the way you lurch off sideways into air
Having read my thoughts against you.
Come then, let us play at unawares,
And see who wins in this sly game of bluff.
Man or mosquito.
You don't know that I exist, and I don't know that you exist.
Now then!
It is your trump
It is your hateful little trump
You pointed fiend,
Which shakes my sudden blood to hatred of you:
It is your small, high, hateful bugle in my ear.
Why do you do it?
Surely it is bad policy.
They say you can't help it.
If that is so, then I believe a little in Providence protecting the innocent.
But it sounds so amazingly like a slogan
A yell of triumph as you snatch my scalp.
Blood, red blood
Super-magical
Forbidden liquor.
I behold you stand
For a second enspasmed in oblivion,
Obscenely ecstasied
Sucking live blood
My blood.
Such silence, such suspended transport,
Such gorging,
Such obscenity of trespass.
You stagger
As well as you may.
Only your accursed hairy frailty
Your own imponderable weightlessness
Saves you, wafts you away on the very draught my anger makes in its snatching.
Away with a pæan of derision
You winged blood-drop.
Can I not overtake you?
pæan: a joyful song
Are you one too many for me
Winged Victory?
Am I not mosquito enough to out-mosquito you?
Queer, what a big stain my sucked blood makes
Beside the infinitesimal faint smear of you!
Queer, what a dim dark smudge you have disappeared into!
Siracusa.
D. H. Lawrence, 1920
Veto
There's a law of nature I'd like to veto...
It's the life and love of the (blank) mosquito.
Don Blanding, 1955
Philip
Guston
and Musa
Mckim,
1970s
Toward the end of his life, abstract artist Philip Guston, turned his attention from the art world to the
literary world and began to “tangle and mingle” his drawings with poems by various poets, including his
wife, Musa McKim. “His drawings for these poems aren’t illustrative, either realistically or
Metaphorically. The pictures are a response, an addition to the argument, another light pointed at the
same spot.” (Craghead)
Sources of information must be cited in parenthetical citations
Mosquito
Delicate creature of gossamer wing
sashaying by: I hear you sing.
Can you not see the hovering threat
focussing palm, your life it will get?
Now you are daintily poised on my book.
Fairy-like sylph, you tempt me, but lookyes, for your beauty I'd fain let you fly,
but for that bloodthirsty look in your eyethat murderous, bloodthirsty look in your eye!
Lorna Whitelaw/Anderson, 1974
Mosquitos
With his radio tuned to news
a listener alone in the early hours
gazes at a comet
through his window.
The feeling drains
from his feet. He pours a bowl of hot water
and takes off his socks.
War has broken out in a country
he cannot place. Aspirin is helpless
against his headache. He wants explosives
to break the dam
behind his eyes. The president
is crushing grammar between his teeth
and the listener cries out
for a flood
to wash away the concrete
that blocks his senses,
a cleansing flood
that rushes down from the mountains
scented with pines. He looks out
at the stars, but cannot hear
the mockingbirds. Financial markets
are falling in a trail of light.
The sky sparkles. He just sits
and is numb
to the bite of mosquitoes
who go back into the night
each with a drop of his blood
glowing inside them.
David Chorlton 2002
A Mosquito Sings at
4:30 A.M., Minnesota
I,I,I,I,I,I,I . . .
The penetration is the ultimate
Moment. I gorge, I feed, I
I wing my way
Am at greatest risk. I am
With precision
Legend. My spirit will live in the
to animal heat.
Great moisture land of the
Forever warm. There has
The viscuous, warm
Been no other greater. I am
Mammalian liquid draws my A feeder. I live in the land
Probe.
Of the giant mammals. I
Survive.
I,I,I,I,I,I,I (the sound of a hand slapping)
The onomatopoetic repetition of “I,I,I,I,I,I,I”
at the beginning and end of the poem, not only
recreates the whine of the mosquito, but
emphasizes the first person voice of the mosquito’s song
Stephen Morse, 1980s
Mosquito
Six hours for everything!
She has to make some
choices. I would do what
she does-fly up
from the cool water
like a dust mote,
dry my wings, hoping they
might lift me further.
I would jazz it up,
all for love, draw circles
on the air. In this
brief, expanding universe
of suns, I would try to be
nothing but longing,
entirely hunger. And when I died,
I'd leave behind a memory
like an itch.
Jeanne Murray Walker, 1994
The lack of punctuation in the
ten-line long first sentence creates
a rush of words interrupted only
by the stanza breaks. The
second sentence, nearly as long,
seems more deliberate as its
phrases are set off by commas.
Ending the six tercets of the poem
with a single-line stanza serves
to emphasize nature’s sacral aspect
insect airlines - we never run out of fuel
if over coffee in a parisian cafe
a mosquito
elegantly holding a gitane
said:
saddle me up
and we'll fly through the jungles
of madagascar
and across the burning plains
of africa
i'd go
but i'd worry all the time
that i was being exploited
and was nothing more
than a gullible fuel tank
Richard Zola, 2000
Gitane: a brand of French cigarettes
Mosquito
She visits me when the lights are out,
when the sun is loving another
part of the world.
She passes through the net I sleep under like
a cloud its holes are easily navigable.
Her buzzing tells me that
she doesn't want my legs arms cheeks
or chest.
No.
She craves adventure wanting to travel through
the dark canal the spiraling cave
where earthquakes are wind.
Note how the poet
uses interior space
Her prize is in sight the gelatinous mass controlling this machine.
How beautiful she thinks it is her needle mouth
filling with water.
Her children will know physics geometry will understand
English Spanish perhaps Portuguese. They will be
haunted their whole lives by trees guns
and a boom that won't cease.
She cries before drinking the fluid is
salty-sweet. Oh if my mother had
done this for me I would have lived.
Myronn Hardy, 2001
Poets
Anderson, Lorna (1918-2001) Canadian. Mother of Susannah, who
created a website that contains her poetry.
Blanding, Don (1894-1957). Born in Oklahoma, Blanding studied at
the Art Institute in Chicago and in Paris and London. An itinerant artist
and writer, his light verse met with popular success, and his first
collection, published in 1928 under the title, Vagabond's House. met
with immediate success. “After 1928 he wrote both poetry and prose,
and his published works, some of them with his own illustrations,
were: Virgin of Waikiki (1929), Hula Moons'(1930), Songs of the Seven
Senses and Stowaways in Paradise (1931), Floridays (1940), Pilot
Bails Out'(1943), Today Is Here (1946), Mostly California'(1948), A
Grand Time for Living (1950), Joy Is an Inside Job'(1953), and Hawaii
Says Aloha (1955) ” (“Don Blanding”).
Sources of information must be cited in parenthetical citations
Botkin, Nancy (?): Botkin is a Lecturer in English at Indiana
University: South Bend (Botkin)
David Chorlton (?): lived in England and Austria before moving to
Phoenix in 1978. His volumes of poetry include Forget the Country
You Came From, Outposts, and a chapbook, Common Sightings which
won the Palanquin Press Competition. He is a painter as well as a poet
(Contributors).
Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882): Poet, essayist and philosopher,
Emerson was one of the towering figures of nineteenth-century
American literature. Known as “the sage of Concord,” he was the
chief spokesman for the Transcendentalists. (Benet’s 300-01).
Guston, Philip (1913-80) and Musa McKim (1908-92):
Guston's Poem-Pictures were assembled in an exhibition at the
Addison Gallery of American Art in 1994. “The Poem-Pictures
incorporate passages, lines and, in some cases complete stanzas
from poems by Berkson, Coolidge, Corbett, Musa McKim
(Guston's wife), Stanley Kunitz (an old friend from the 1950s),
among others ….and represent a form of collaboration that
counter the ongoing modernist reading…that has been brought to
bear on Guston's work” (Balken). Selections of Musa’s poetry are
collected in Alone With the Moon (1994).
Hardy, Myronn (1972-): Hardy, born in Michigan, currently lives
in New York City, where he earned an MFA degree in fiction at
Columbia University's School of Arts in Writing. In 1998 he spent
a year in South Africa transcribing apartheid and post-apartheid
narratives and has presented his research at the University of
Havana and the University of Guantanamo. His poems have been
published in Third Coast, Many Mountains Moving, The Black
Scholar, Callaloo, and in the anthology Testimony from Beacon
Press (“Approaching”)
Lawrence, D.H. (1885-1930): One of the major English novelists
of the Twentieth Century (novels include Sons and Lovers, Women
in Love, Lady Chatterley’s Lover), Lawrence also wrote short
stories, poetry and essays. His poetry collections include Birds,
Beasts and Flowers (1923), Look! We Have Come Through (1917)
and Pansies (1929) (Benet’s).
Morse, Stephen (1945-): Morse was born in Oakland Naval Hospital,
Oakland, CA. As a teenager during the early 1960s, he hung out with
the Beat poets at Coffee and Confusion in North Beach . He studied
with Robert Creeley at San Francisco State University during the 1970s.
His poetry has been published in Saturday Review, numerous small
magazines, and in his 1972 book, Dusty Rabbits (“About Stephen
Morse”).
Walker, Jeanne Murray (?) Walker is the author of five books of
poetry. They are Gaining Time (Copper Beech, l998), Stranger Than
Fiction (Quarterly Review of Literature, l992), Coming Into
History (Cleveland State, l990), Fugitive Angels (Dragon Gate, l985),
and Nailing Up The Home Sweet Home (Cleveland State, l980). Her
poems have appeared in Poetry, The American Poetry Review, The
Georgia Review, The Kenyon Review, The Nation, and many other
journals and anthologies. A professor of poetry and drama at the
University of Delaware, she also writes for the theatre (“Jeanne Murray
Walker”).
Zola, Richard (1949-): Zola is an English poet who publishes his
Poetry on his website dances with zola (Stoneking). Born on the Isle
of Guernsey, he says “i write because i have a tribal
mentality.....and no campfire” (Zola, “poetics”)
Mosquito Evasion: Personal
Reflections on Pests and Poetry
The editor's Concluding Reflections should be a personal
statement about the Anthology. Here may discuss why you
chose the poems. 250-500 words.
Bibliography
"About Stephen Morse." Stephen S. Morse. 8. Mar.2002
< http://www.juice-press.com >.
Anderson, Lorna. “Mosquito.” 1974. Poems by Lorna Anderson. Jan. 2005
< http://mypage.direct.ca/s/susannah/mombugs.html >.
"Approaching the Center by Myronn Hardy." Book Review. New Issues in Poetry
and Prose. Spring 2001. Western Michigan University. 8 Mar. 2002
< http://www.wmich.edu/newissues/spring2001/hardy.mosquito.html >.
Balken, Debra Bricker. “Philip Guston’s Poem Pictures.” Lingo: A Journal of the Arts.
Cultureport: Hard Press. 11 Sep. 2002
< http://www.cultureport.com/newhp/lingo/authors/balken.html >.
.
Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia. 3rd ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.
Blanding, Don. "Veto." 1955. Florida in Poetry: A History of the Imagination. Eds.
Jane Anderson Jones and Maurice O'Sullivan. Sarasota, FL: Pineapple Press,
1995. 261.
Botkin, Nancy. “Mosquito Poem.” Poems of Life, 1999. Rpt. Home Pages Indiana
University. 9 Mar. 2002.
<http://www.iuinfo.indiana.edu/homepages/4-14-2000/text/botkin.htm>.
Chorlton, David. “Mosquitos.” Slipstream 22 (2002). Online sample. 10 Sept. 2002.
< http://www.slipstreampress.org/issue22.html >
“Contributors.” The Ascent Experience: Aspirations for Artists. August 2002. 23 Sept.
2002. < http://www.bcsupernet.com/users/ascent/contributors.html >
Craghead, W. “Philip Guston’s ‘Poem Pictures.’” USS Catastrophe. 23 Sept. 2002.
< http://www.usscatastrophe.com/cannon/guston/wc.guston.html >
"Don Blanding." The National Cyclopedia of American Biography. New York:
James T. White and Company, 1963. Vol. 46: 146-147. Rpt. Don Blanding.
2002. 8 Mar. 2002. < http://www.don-blanding.com/index.htm >.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Adirondacs.” Works: Poems Vol. 9. 1903. The American Verse
Project. University of Michigan. 9 Mar. 2002
http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idxq1=mosquito&sid
Freundenrich, Craig T. “How Mosquitos Work.” Marshall Brain’s How Stuff Works.
11 Sep. 2002 < http://www.howstuffworks.com/mosquito.htm/printable >
Guston, Philip and Musa McKim. "Awakened by a Mosquito in the Villa Aurelia" from
Poem Pictures, 1970s. UbuWeb Historical. 9 Mar. 2002
< http://www.ubu.com/historical/guston/guston17.html >
Hardy, Myronn. "Mosquito." Approaching the Center. 2001. Rpt. Poetry Exhibits.
Poets.Org. The Academy of American Poets. 1997-2002. 8 Mar.2002.
< http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?prmID=2112 >.
“Jeanne Murray Walker” Professor.: English Department, University of Delaware.
12 Mar. 2002. < http://www.english.udel.edu/faculty/walker.html >.
Lawrence, David Herbert. "Mosquito." 1921. Representative Poetry Online. University of
Toronto Department of English and U of Toronto P, 1994-2000. 8. Mar. 2002.
< http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/dhl10.html >.
Moncure, Sue Swyers. “UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 39, Page 5 August 4, 1994 Jeanne Walker:
poet, playwright and professor” University of Delaware Update Archives. 9 Mar.
2002. <http://www.udel.edu/PR/UpDate/94/39/16.html >
Morse, Stephen. "A Mosquito Sings at 4:30 A.M., Minnesota." Stephen S. Morse.
8.Mar.2002 < http://www.juice-press.com/poemorse/80s/mosquito.html >.
"Mosquito: Anophales Quadrimaculatus" Illinois Department of Natural Resources:
Department of Education. 8 Mar. 2002
<http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/education/classrm/wingleg/mosquito.HTM >.
Notes. The Adironacs: A Journal. from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Works: Poems Vol. 9.
1903. The American Verse Project. University of Michigan. 9 Mar. 2002
< http://www.hti.umich.edu/a/amverse/ >
Stoneking, Billy Marshall. “ The Near Interview of Richard Zola.” dances of zola. 19
June 2001. 11. Sep. 2002 < http://www.richardzola.co.uk/pages/interview.php >.
Walker. Jeanne. “Mosquito.” Jeanne Walker: poet, playwright and professor. 8 Aug. 1994
University of Delaware Update Archives. 9 Mar. 2002.
<http://www.udel.edu/PR/UpDate/94/39/16.html >
Zola, Richard. "insect airlines - we never run out of fuel." 2000. dances of zola.
9 Mar. 2002. < http://www.1freespace.com/art/danceofzola/poem83.html >.
_____. “poetics.” 2002. dances of zola. 11 Sep. 2002.
< http://www.richardzola.co.uk/archive/index.html >.
Take a quiz to see how attractive
you are to mosquitos:
http://www.mosquitoes.com/meter.asp
Post Script
Mosquito Limerick
A mosquito was heard to complain
That a chemist had poisoned his brain
The cause of his sorrow
Was para-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane
From the Seattle Food Garden Newsletter,
put out by the Washington State University's Extension Service and
King County