In Marianne Moore's short poem, "A Jelly-Fish," it is brilliant how she describes the beauty of the jelly fish. Moore describes the sea creatures in all of their beauty "Visible, invisible, a fluctuating charm." I love this line because it perfectly depicts how magical a jelly fish appears in real life. The fluid movements as they float in the ocean resembles that of a "fluctuating charm" and how they appear to be both visible and invisible at the same time is extraordinary. The line "an amber-tinctured amethyst inhabits it" could be describing the jelly fish's loose network of nerves. Jelly fish do not have brains, hearts or innards so besides its natural color, the only thing the amethyst could be is the network of nerves? The other bit of Moore's poem on jelly fish is how she captured the reality of how a person, upon seeing such a beautiful creature, would want to reach out and touch it. "You had meant to catch it, and it quivers; you abandon your intent." This line is great because it tells of the person attempting to reach out to touch the beautiful jelly fish, but hesitates and pulls back upon realizing that it is actually dangerous. Such a seemingly innocent creature is potentially deadly if it feels threatened. I really enjoyed this poem because it was so simple, beautiful, and easy to imagine. Marine life is phenomenal and interesting. It is easy to understand why Moore would choose such a fascinating creature to write a poem about. The jelly fish are stunning both appearance-wise and literally.
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I liked the poem too. The eponymous jellyfish could be thought of as a symbol for so many different parts of the human experience; a nigh-impossible personal goal, or a potentially volatile relationship, or doubt, or equestrian maintenance.
ReplyDeleteKalena, I really enjoyed reading your blog and I also thought you did a nice job of giving a more literal view of the jelly-fish. I think your comparisons to its beauty and the way it flows with the water, instead of against it, can definitely be seen as yet another metaphor to our own lives in the way that we sometimes feel we have to go against the rules, at least bend them just a little, in order to have some sense of personal freedom away from the constant lecturing done by teachers, employers, classmates, workers, friends, and family. Sometimes though, this 'rebellion,' for lack of a better word, can put us in a situation we didn't necessarily want to be a part of in the first place. Sometimes it's better to just 'go with the flow,' as does the jelly-fish. The delicacy of the floating and the transparency of its form resembles the parable that sometimes its better to remain under the surface, out of the spotlight, and to simply go with the flow. :)
ReplyDelete-Ben
I too liked your literal view of the jelly fish. I thought the physical description was both beautiful and accurate. While upon further inspection one can certainly get a symbolic meaning behind the description of the jelly fish, such as a dream just out of grasp, but I initially thought of a child (most likely because I recently took my daughter to the Shed Aquarium for the first time which has a beautiful, alluring jelly fish exhibit) observing the jelly fish in awe and wonder and having that child-like curiosity and desire to reach out and touch it, but hesitating because the intense beauty has an alluring but dangerous mystery to it.
ReplyDeleteYour interpretation of this poem is very interesting. I think most people would just see words describing a jelly fish whereas you find meaning and symbolism behind their "fluctuating charm".
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