I am reading a poem called The Butterfly by Ponge. Has anyone read this and willing to explain it? I'm confuse

Answer 1

I assume what you meant was that you are "confused." No doubt this is a homework assignment and I won't do the assignment for you. However, I will help you to do it. I hope you are familiar with who Ponge was. Look him up on the net of you haven't already and see what he was writing about in general. Now get out the dictionary.

As you no doubt realize, this is translated from French. French is often hard to translate well. That word "elaborated" may give you difficulty and may be strained in English, but look it up for ALL the definitions. It isn't a big issue: you should be able to get the gist of this, as long as you know what all the words mean.

Ponge's work isn't about description as much as it is about modes of being. Think of this when you read it again. He doesn't describe the pretty wings but what does the butterfly do? What is the secret of how butterflies come to be? "Caterpillar" is the hint. How does Ponge describe the transformation?

In the first part it is suggesting flowers creating nectar. Then he explains how butterflies are attracted to it. But he uses images from the real world. The flowers are like cups with residue of sugar, like from a cafe. I like the image of flowers being cups.
Further on, I love the image of a lamplighter: these were people who used to light the gas lamps along the streets each night. What is the parallel with the butterfly's colorful wings?
It then "avenges" its previous existence as what? How does it do that? I think you should look up the word "atrophy" and "amorphous." What are the rags it deposits?
The last part talks about how the butterfly is a "redundant petal." Do you get that? It's great imagery. Instead of flitting he uses the word "vagabond" as a verb. What's a vagabond? The butterfly seems to have no direction, but chooses things how?
Read the whole thing once you understand the pieces. Good luck and don't copy, please.