St. Roach
Over the course of a poetic career that kept her in
the international spotlight for more than forty
years, Muriel Rukeyser established a reputation
for concern about social justice. This concern is
evident in ‘‘St. Roach,’’ which was published in
her final book,The Gates, in 1976. On its surface,
this poem is about the ways in which the poet
was taught to view cockroaches with disgust and
hatred, thinking of them only to plan ways to kill
them. Not far below the surface, however, is a
message about racial enmity or hostility. In the
end, the poem offers a solution when the speaker
looks at the cockroach and notices what is noble
and beautiful about it.
While Rukeyser has not been considered a
major poet by critics, her work remains just shy
of the distinction and has nevertheless garnered a
lasting critical respect. In the years since her
death in 1980, various collections of Rukeyser’s
poems have gone in and out of print. ‘‘St. Roach’’
can now be found inThe Collected Poems of
Muriel Rukeyser(2005).
Author Biography
Muriel Rukeyser was born in New York, New
York, on December 15, 1913. Her father, Law-
rence, was a concrete salesman, and her mother,
Myra, was a housewife who had been a book-
keeper. Rukeyser attended high school at a
281MURIEL RUKEYSER
1976