Analysis Of The Poem: The Fly

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depicts the fly flying as a minute messenger of filth
and disease. It is described landing on the heap of dung, then
contaminating all that is clean with its filth and decay. Its hungry
burrowing and laying of maggots in a dead body is described, as is its
perpetual shyness from its adversary, man.

In the third section, the fly's close interaction with those that would
destroy it is discussed. The horse is shown as being its mortal enemy,
sweeping it with what the fly sees as the hurricane force of its tail. The
author shows how the fly dares to rest on the hand of its most dangerous
adversary then swiftly flies from his reach, as if taunting him. He shows
how the fly dares also to return to continually harass his opponent.

The fourth stanza describes the countermeasures employed by men to
destroy the fly. He shows how children try to smash them in their hands,
how wives resort to using poisons to kill the fly, and how the fly
struggles, trapped in sticky flypaper, with ...

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