Chrysalis Poem by Barry Kavanagh

When I was young my sister and I found a caterpillar hanging from a clothes line, we watched him move up the clothes line and in the days later transform into the chrysalis stage.

Analysis

‘It is a time to transform’
During the Spring a caterpillar begins a transformation process known as Chrysalis in which it transforms into a butterfly

‘Reform, to a form fit to adorn’
The caterpillar is not very attractive, so he reforms into something that is more beautiful

‘I heave and struggle, bend and wiggle my green i shape form’
The small i is kept on purpose, a caterpillar looks like an i shape

‘On sextet legs, I silk and spin’
A caterpillar has a set of six legs

‘And spin myself a crystalline castle’
‘And crown myself Chrysalis’
He forms a chrysalis around himself which is transparent

‘Slumber and sleep in liquid base form’
During chrysalis the caterpillar liquefies into a base form, his DNA is then rearranged with the butterfly template

‘I heave and struggle free, eclose, emerge, a crowned king’
The process of the butterfly’s emergence from chrysalis is called eclose.

‘To claim the Kingdom of Allure, scentful, splendid, pure’
As a king this is his kingdom, all things beautiful in nature.