"The Cockroach" by Kevin Halligen

The Cockroach

Kevin Halligen

'The Cockroach' by Kevin Halligen is a poem about reflection on life through watching the movement of a cockroach. The central idea of the poem is the distress and suffering felt by a person, when he is without a goal or aim.  The poem is an example of an allegory, and a sonnet. It is an allegory because it personifies a cockroach as a human being. Halligen repeatedly personifies the cockroach in many ways and he prefers to address the cockroach as 'he' rather than 'it'.

             It is written in the format of a sonnet which runs in fourteen lines. The first four lines of the sonnet show that the cockroach is certain of his movement. It has started to move fast and it is satisfied with its movement. The cockroach is content to take a safe route by avoiding the dust ball. In the same way the poet is sure of himself in the early stage of his life.

The next 4 lines convey that the cockroach’s movements show uncertainty just as the poet’s.  His uncertainty of movement is shown by its action of scratching its wings. When the cockroach stops, it looks as if he is tired of being still.  He wants to move on and not remain in the same place all the time.

In the last 6 lines the poet becomes thoughtful.  The last three lines tell us that the poet recognized himself in the cockroach in a number of ways.  First he wanted safety, much like the cockroach keeping to a safe path along the wainscot.  Later he became more willing to seek new places and new activities.  Finally just like the cockroach he was ‘uncertain where to go’.  He questions whether just like the cockroach he is being punished for something wrong in his ‘former life’.  The word ‘due payment’ tells us that the poet is suffering and agonized over uncertainty and indecision.  In the last line of the poem he confesses that he recognizes himself in the Cockroach.