On nights when we have clear skies, no matter where you are, we happy faces look to the stars–and the moon. Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island (1883) and the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), wrote “The Moon” to speak to the foreboding nature of the moon, and the calmness that it can bring. Poetry lives in contrast, and the moon conveys this notion expertly.
Analysis of “The Moon”
In his poem “The Moon” that the moon “has a face like the clock in the hall / She shines on thieves on the garden wall.” Of course, thieves are a violent intrusion into our lives and their juxtaposition to the a thing of beauty–a garden wall–is like that of a beautiful full moon and the violence of dismemberment by a monster of the night.
Horror movies featuring werewolves always feature the moon high overhead, and the expectation that Lon Chaney Jr. is down below looking up in horror is expected, but the looming eye of that wondrous spectral bulb exists to tell us that the moon is there watching and waiting, so stand guard!
“The squalling cat and the squeaking mouse, / The howling dog by the door of the house,” Stevenson tells us of the moon and its watchers, and “The bat that lies in bed at noon / All love to be out by the light of the moon.” Here Stevenson says that the bat sleeps in the day to engage in its love (of flight perhaps) when the moon is full and high in the sky.
And while the portentous nature of a full moon enlightens us to the werewolves among us, it also represents a peaceful time of recharging and solace. Kindly, Stevenson further states, that “But all of the things that belong to the day / Cuddle to sleep to be out of her way; And flowers and children close their eyes / Till up in the morning the sun shall arise.” The image of a sleeping child is a descriptive one as cherubs cuddled up in blankets and flowers falling to their gardens and soil until the light comes back can only be best described as childlike wonder and peace.
“The Moon” by Robert Louis Stevenson
The moon has a face like the clock in the hall;
She shines on thieves on the garden wall,
On streets and fields and harbour quays,
And birdies asleep in the forks of the trees.
The squalling cat and the squeaking mouse,
The howling dog by the door of the house,
The bat that lies in bed at noon,
All love to be out by the light of the moon.
But all of the things that belong to the day
Cuddle to sleep to be out of her way;
And flowers and children close their eyes
Till up in the morning the sun shall arise.
Works Cited
Stevenson, Robert Louis. “The Moon.” Public Domain. Web.
