Flying Crooked
The butterfly, a cabbage-white, (His honest idiocy of flight) Will never now, it is too late, Master the art of flying straight, Yet has- who knows so well as I?- A just sense of how not to fly: He lurches here and here by guess And God and hope and hopelessness. Even the acrobatic swift Has not his flying-crooked gift. - Robert Graves |
Internal Link Between the Cabbage White Butterfly and Humans
In lines 5 and 6, Graves directly connects the butterfly and humanity: "Yet has- who knows so well as I?- A just sense of how not to fly[...]". The reader can then analyze the entirety of the poem equating the flight of the butterfly with the flight of humanity.
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The Practical Connection Between Humanity and the Cabbage White
Cabbage White larvae attack the leaves of brassica crops leaving only the rotting vegetables behind. They are a very common pest throughout much of North American, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Humanity has waged war against these garden killers. We use chemicals, bacteria, parasites, the removal of eggs and larvae, and physically netting our plants in order to keep these animals at bay. Why? - here's and example: The crop profile for New York (which ranks number one in the country for cabbage production) lists that Cabbage White larvae can cause 100% quality loss, 25-60% quantity yield loss, affect 100% of acres, and can cause 100% of yield loss in severely affected areas.