the cultures of others. In line 17, she notes that she
passes along the same insular worldview to chil-
dren of the next generation. In noting what she
fails to expose children to from the subject’s cul-
ture, the speaker uses examples from the preceding
lines—poems, from line 13, and songs, from line
16—but also adds a new, more essential element in
talking about the food of the other culture.
In the last two lines of the first stanza, the
speaker changes to using the first-person plural.
She herself is thus presented more as an innocent
party, a victim of her culture who was raised to
know no better than the common prejudices, from
earlier lines. However, her use of the pronounwe
indicates that she has internalized the narrow-
mindedness. This is particularly significant when
line 21 is compared to line 2: In the earlier line, the
speaker says that she was told of the filthiness of
the people being discussed, while in line 21 she is
one of those who is saying these derogatory things.
Stanza 2
In the second stanza, Rukeyser shows how the
prejudice that was drilled into her finally began
to dissolve. What is more important is that she is
putting aside the habit of seeing others, whether
they are humans or insects, as a group, to instead
pay particular attention to individual members
of the group. In this instance, rather than
approaching the subject with the preconceived
notions that she was taught from her childhood,
she let the evidence of her own senses tell her
about the person she was observing. The high
significance of this act is emphasized by the way
Rukeyser says almost the same thing in two lines
close together, lines 23 and 26.
In lines 24 and 25, the poem focuses on the
issue of color in relation to prejudice. Having
mentioned in line 11 that the other, the myste-
rious one that she had been trained to fear and
loathe, was dark, she notes upon observing one
particular example of cockroach or person that
this one is not as dark as those that have been
observed from afar. Line 25 makes a point of
noting that this lightness is meaningless. A point
of this poem is to show how distinctions such as
those made by color or race are arbitrary; to say
that darkness is better or that darkness is worse
would contradict that point.
Line 26 repeats the same idea that was
expressed three lines earlier, in line 23, giving
emphasis to the speaker’s amazement at how
unaware of this aspect of her world she has
been up to this point. In line 27, the speaker
attributes complex mental processes to the one
she is observing, far beyond the capabilities of a
cockroach. If this poem were read as speaking
strictly about cockroaches, as the title indicates
it is, then it would be projecting human attrib-
utes onto a creature with an insect’s intellectual
capacity. If it is read as a metaphor for human
relations, then the recognition that the subject is
troubled and witty represents a willingness to
accept the truth of other people’s humanity.Stanza 3
While much prejudice is overcome by looking at
the other, there is still much more progress to be
made through actual physical contact, an act of
intimacy. These things happen in stages in the
poem. For the poem’s speaker, who has been
taught that the other cockroach or person carries
filth and disease, touching the thing she has been
taught to hate is a bold step.
After physical contact is made, the associa-
tions are all positive; the other is compared to a
dancer. Rukeyser admits to a sense of wonder-
ment that overwhelms the fears that dominated
the earlier part of the poem. As the poem says in
its last line, this represents the beginning of a
relationship. Though it took much for the poet
to get herself to initiate this contact with an
other, there is still much more understanding to
be gained before she will really know that other.Themes
Prejudice
The relationship between the speaker of this
poem and the cockroach being discussed is the
same one that many people have with people of
other cultures. The poet identifies ways in which
she was taught to fear the cockroach: she had no
firsthand knowledge of it, having grown up in a
place kept free of insects, but was told by others
of its dangers. Her experience with cockroaches
has been limited to seeing them killed, leaving
the impression that their deaths are necessary.
Her hatred of cockroaches, like all prejudices, is
allowed by a lack of familiarity.
The fact that Rukeyser is dealing with
human prejudice here is not in the least hidden.
Although she identifies her subject as a cock-
roach in the poem’s title, she does not use that
word in the poem itself. What she does do is talkSt. Roach