Poetry Precis 5-"The Bat" by Theodore Roethke

     Written by Theodore Roethke, "The Bat" is a poem which conveys a message about the real fear of humans through its metaphors and a storytelling tone. Throughout this poem, "the bat" acts as a metaphor which represents "the unknown". To accomplish this, the speaker portrays the bat as a confusing and creepy creature as it is a "cousin to the mouse" and one that likes the "attic of an aging house". The creature is unpredictable and acts in a way that humans find scary during the night. When people see unfamiliar scenes, like a bat who "brushes up against a screen", "we are afraid of what our eyes have seen". This is not saying in the literal sense that humans are scared of bats in general but instead, this idea suggests that when something unexpected or unfamiliar happens, humans become the most fearful. The last line of the poem which says that something is "amiss or out of place when mice with wings can wear a human face", adds on to the message of this poem, explaining that perhaps what humans are most scared of is the ability for other humans to be so unpredictable.By comparing the bat to the unknown and then in the last stanza, to the unpredictability of humans, Theodore Reothke relays a message of truth to the readers which is that the things that are unfamiliar to us are the things that scare us most.