Entomology — Summary

DanteAngry

You caught me in your net of wishful hoping, Pinned me down with needles and pins You didn't check if I was dead first but let me feel all the pain that you had in store for me, Why was it that you took me from my natural habitat and stripped me down until I was your definition of clean,

Let me be pressed down onto your emotions that soaked me of guilt and grief, Then letting me dry out until I was numb You glued me down to a back frame and let me be framed in the walls of your home,

Where no one entered and you kept me to yourself, You took my beauty out to fit your needs

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Dante's "Entomology" uses the image of a collected insect to describe being possessed by someone else. The speaker is the butterfly or beetle, caught in a net, pinned while still alive, and displayed on a wall. The poem suggests a relationship in which one person takes control, strips away what made the other individual, and keeps them hidden away.

The speaker's feelings run from pain to anger to numbness. The question "Why was it that you took me from my natural habitat" sounds hurt and accusing at once. The line about being soaked in "guilt and grief" suggests the other person's emotions were pressed onto the speaker until nothing was left to feel. Being "numb" comes after the pain, which makes it sadder.

The mood is cold, clinical and claustrophobic. The scientific language makes the cruelty feel calm and deliberate, and the final lines, about a home "where no one entered," leave a sense of isolation. The speaker's beauty is admired, but only by being taken apart and used.

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We sat there explaining about our lives, What gave us joy and happiness What made us feel like the lowest in our lives, And what brought us tears to our eyes
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Everyday you'd tell me I'm beautiful, You'd tell me my eyes are beautiful Like no one else's, but they're just brown I'd reply. Your face is pure and bright you'd say,