Lepidoptera

On broken butterfly wing, your crippled mind
fluttered into my schoolroom. Failed. And died.
I couldn’t do a thing to stir its organs
of poor maimed sense to life again.

Only sensation. Reflex twitch
of feelers. And for me sentiment.
Occasional small rapture at your velvet
softness and smoothness. Soon the ants of time
carry you away from chalk and Chaucer
into oblivion.

Farewell, lovely.
The heavy footed State, which made a mess
of your fragility, called this progress,
should pin you down on cardboard behind glass
specimen of the educated class.

Author Richard de Zoysa

Summary and Analysis

Richard de Zoysa’s ‘Lepidoptera’, the title is taken from the scientific name for butterflies. The subject of the poem is not simply a butterfly. It must be a student and, since the subject of the first sentence is ‘mind’, we can understand that the poem is about learning, or rather difficulties in the way of learning.

Richard Manik de Zoysa was a well-known Sri Lankan journalist, author, human rights activist and actor, who was abducted and murdered on 18 February 1990.

Born: March 18, 1958, Colombo

Assassinated: February 18, 1990, Sri Lanka

Movies: Yuganthaya

Books: This Other Eden: The Collected Poems of Richard de Zoysa

Parents: Manorani Sarvanamuttu, Lucien de Zoysa

Siblings: Michael de Zoysa, Lana de Zoysa

Richard de Zoysa’s evocative and insightful poetry constitutes a defining trait of his personality as a gifted Shakespearean actor, poet, writer and journalist whose life was snatched off at the hands of the yet-unknown armed goons and dumped into the sea to be washed ashore in a couple of days. Essentially, his poetry is apolitical and lased with multiple layers of meanings which subject them to many readings. Quintessential characteristics of his poetry is that their sheer mastery in the craft and easy yet-idiomatic diction.

Lepidoptera is the scientific name for the butterfly. Butterfly suggests innocence. Richard De Zoysa’s interests are varied; ethnic, social, injustices, plight of women, the mission of the poet, violence, how young children are driven to corruption etc. His poetry is like a search light roaming in society. He is daring enough even to focuss attention on certain political figures/ political parties directly.

The minds of the children are crippled and their wings are broken. They come to school with a maimed mind. Spiritually he dies at school.

The system of education kills the spirit of the child. He can’t think independently with his crippled mind. Thus, this poem is an inducement on the system of education The state has made a mess of the child’s brittleness/fragility.

After maiming the child and after making the teacher helpless the state calls it Progress. This is ironical.

The pathetic situation of the educated class is brought out. The specimen of the educated class in pinned on a cardboard and exhibited. The educated class is dispirited by the system. Poet is pointing out the plight of the dispirited educated class. The educated class is merely a display item. The state with its over powering power destroys the spirit of the child and labels it as the educated class and it is called Progress. But this dead class cannot contribute anything to the society because, it is dispirited. He shows a lot of sympathy for the child. He calls the child Lovely and compares him to a butterfly. The beauty of the child is destroyed under the heavy footed state. The state exploits the fragility of the child.

VOCABULARY

01.crippled = unable to walk or move properly
02.fluttered= flapped the wings quickly
03.maimed = injured, damaged
04.sensation =a physical feeling
05.reflex =an action that is performed as a response to a stimulus and without conscious thought
06.feelers= the two antennae on the head of an insect
07.twitch =give a short, sudden jerking or convulsive movement.
08.sentiment = a feeling or emotion
09.rapture =a feeling of intense pleasure
10.Chaucer= an English poet
11.oblivion= the state of being unconscious of what is happening
12.mess = a confused state of affairs

Subject-matter
a student who failed to reach his educational target

Main theme:

unsuitability of the education in Sri Lanka. The education in Sri Lanka does not cater to the needs of the young generation.

Sub themes:

the youth’s unrest
compassionate attitudes of a teacher towards a student
desperate competition in education

TECHNIQUES

appropriate words and phrases
broken butterfly wing
your crippled mind
maimed sense

reflex twitch
the ants of time
chalk and Chaucer
The heavy footed State
fragility

Apostrophe
your crippled mind

Humanization
your crippled mind
Personification
maimed sense

Comparison:
the student is compared to a butterfly.(Lepidoptera)

metaphor :
ants of time
chalk and Chaucer:- the traditional education
The heavy footed State:- the powerful state

Implication:
Failed. And died. : the student’s failure
should pin you down on cardboard behind glass
specimen of the educated class.

Phrases
01. crippled mind=damaged mind
02.maimed sense =sense not active because it is damaged
03.velvet softness and smoothness=soft and smooth like velvet
04.chalk and Chaucer= education (Here Chaucer is used as a symbol of education)
05.the heavy footed State= powerful authoritative state
06.should pin you down(pinned insect) = specimen of the educated class(certificated scholars)

LITERARY STUDY

On broken butterfly wing, your crippled mind

The butterfly in the poem is symbolic of a student who is lost in the process of education. The poet is the teacher. One wing of the butterfly is broken so it denotes that it cannot fly. It is compared to a crippled mind. A mind is normally not crippled but a person. The student’s mind is crippled because he has exerted his brain on the uncreative education.

Fluttered into my schoolroom. Failed. And died.

The butterfly fluttered in to the teacher’s classroom. But the implicit meaning of this line is that the student came to his class, failed to reach his target and failed his whole life. This denotes that our education is based on rote learning and not on creativity. Here the teacher is incapable of doing anything for the student’s benefit as he cannot change the
education system.

I couldn’t do a thing to stir its organs
of poor maimed sense to life again.

Sense is inanimate. Yet it is poor and maimed. Only a person can be poor and an organ maimed. So ‘sense’ is personified here referring to the student’s mind.

Only sensation. Reflex twitch
of feelers. And for me sentiment

It has only physical feeling. A reflex twitches. That means this is the last moment of the butterfly. What is denoted here is that the student is delirious over his failure.

And for me sentiment

The teacher just has a feeling of emotion. He sympathizes with the plight of the student. He not only sympathizes with the plight of this particular student but also the whole student community who are victimized by the same plight.

Occasional small rapture at your velvet
softness and smoothness.

Occasionally it has a small pleasurable feeling. That is a sign of nearing death. At the same time the poet describes the physique of the creature. It is a beautiful delicate thing. The student is compared the butterfly physically. The butterfly is going to face the physical death but the student is going to face frustration.

Soon the ants of time
carry you away from chalk and Chaucer
into oblivion.

He makes a prediction comparing time to ants. Here chalk and Chaucer are symbols for education. The butterfly’s dead body will be carried by ants soon and it will be forgotten. Similarly, the memory of the student’s plight will be erased by time.

Farewell, lovely

The poet takes his leave of the butterfly explicitly and actually he takes his leave of the student.

The heavy footed State, which made a mess of your fragility, called this progress,

Here the state is personified as a giant. This powerful giant made a mess by introducing a wrong education. The fragile little thing was victimized. But he calls it progress.