Ars Poetica is a very pretty and elegant sounding term meaning the “art of poetry”. First being used to describe a poem by the Roman poet Horace, it has become a term and launching pad used by many poets and artists in general. In the poetry world, and especially the modernist tradition, Ars Poetica has become a place for a poet to voice their philosophy on poetry. Not only how to write poetry but what poetry is and what it means to them. Dana Levin’s “Ars Poetica (cocoons)” is a great example of an Ars Poetica:
Six monarch butterfly cocoons
clinging to the back of your throat–
you could feel their gold wings trembling.
You were alarmed. You felt infested.
In the downstairs bathroom of the family home,
gagging to spit them out–
and a voice saying Don’t, don’t—
In classic poetry style, the poem is not explicitly about poetry except for the fact that it is titled as an Ars Poetica. Using the metaphor of butterfly cocoons, the poem is grounded in the physical but also the fantastical as butterflies do not cocoon in the back of peoples’ throats, or at least I have never heard of it happening. Although it would not be a far stretch to say that Levin is drawing inspiration from the already well established idiom of ‘having butterflies’ in your stomach or chest, she is playing with it by placing the butterflies in a different part of the body and in a different stage of biological development. Through placing the cocooned butterflies in the subject’s throat there is an immediate connection to speech. Poetry’s roots are oral as opposed to written, so it makes sense that the metaphor is not placing the butterflies in, say, hands or fingers. Having them in the throat suggests the subject has something to say, but the butterflies being in cocoons suggests that what is to be said has not developed fully yet.
An aspect of the poem that speaks to this undevelopedness is that these butterflies, understandably, are perceived as an infestation or something to get rid of. Only the final lines warn against this. The butterflies as an infestation reads as a metaphor for a burgeoning passion. One that is not yet controlled or understood and can be seen as scary. There are many implications that cocooning butterflies could bring. Maybe they suggest a path the strays from the one someone already has planned out or they confirm something someone has been dreading. Here, however, as suggested by the last line, the cocooning butterflies symbolize an uncomfortable change but one that is for the better. And as the poem is in past tense it is a poem of reflection and retrospection. Meaning that this change, although at first alarming, was a change that meant breaking from a cocoon and becoming fully realized. Meaning you should trust your gut about what is clinging to your throat.