Frankenstein's Monster

Bell, Marvin

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poem

Annotated by:
Coulehan, Jack
  • Date of entry: Jun-26-1995

Summary

Frankenstein's monster is speaking. "Bigger than the best, but not the best," he will do anything, he will not rest until "the earth is rid of that Creator / who dared to make a thing without a soul." He tells us that he is "the dark body . . . / made . . . to symbolize your dread." He warns us that he is not really something exterior or alien--we can find him in our sons and daughters, even in ourselves: "While you disperse in every dark theater / in streams of light, inside you I am whole."

Commentary

This short (21 line) poem combines the theme of scientific hubris (making a thing without a soul) with the realization that darkness (soul-lessness) actually lies within human beings. Like springs from like. Our ability to create evil originates in our own "dark side." The poem is superior in its craftsmanship--three seven-line stanzas, with an elegant rhyming pattern in which the corresponding lines of each of the three stanzas rhyme (i.e. a-a-a, b-b-b, etc.)

Primary Source

Iris of Creation

Publisher

Copper Canyon

Place Published

Port Townsend, Wash.

Edition

1990