Slave Moth: A Narrative in Verse

by Thylias Moss

Named by Black Issues as the best poetry book of 2004, this is the astonishing story of a slave girl in the antebellum South.

This critically acclaimed verse-novel follows the unforgettable Varl, a slave on a plantation in Tennessee, on her path to freedom. Wise beyond her years and wildly creative, Varl must choose between the only life she's knownher Mamalee, her friends (especially her beloved Dob), the farmland she's explored since childhoodand her growing need for self-determination. Standing in her path, waiting to quash her spirit, is her master, the cunning Peter Perry, "a collector of rare things" who aims to add Varl herself to his perverse assortment of oddities.

With Slave Moth , Thylias Moss shows herself yet again to be "a visionary storyteller" (Charles Simic). Written in gorgeous verse, it is an explosion of life in the face of servitude.

Genres: Poetry, American, African American

152 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2003

About the author

Thylias Moss is a multiracial maker, an award-winning poet, recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" grant, and twice nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry.

Reviews

[Ellice · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me about a year after buying it to pick up this book, but I'm really glad I did. Moss tells the story of a 14-year-old enslaved girl and how she deals with her uncomfortable relationship with her master. It's a quite unique take on slavery--by mostly freeing Varl from the physical depredations we associate with slavery, Moss is able to show the deeper, more insidious mental toll that being regarded as "property" takes on a soul. The book is written in verse, but don't let this dissuade you if it otherwise sounds of interest--the poetry of her words most definitely adds to, not distracts from, the tale. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the African American experience, particularly slavery, and those interested in how the human spirit perseveres in the face of torment.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A neo-slave narrative in verse, Slave Moth offers a comprehensive exploration of one African American slave's attempt to preserve her inner life amidst the "peculiar institution's" ongoing assaults on her humanity. Imaginative, if not a bit too oblique for my tastes at times, the book provides a nice complement to thematically similar works like Toni Morrison's Beloved or Octavia Butler's Kindred.

[Elizabeth]

Checked this out because Ching-Il had it on her “to read” list in GoodReads. But so glad I came to it. I'm engaged by the scope of it, by its uneasy balance between narrative and lyric.

To the plot: the book recounts the inner life of Varl over what seems to be a few months. Slave to a strange master who likes to have “oddities” in his stable of slaves (an albino slave, a dwarf, a literate woman (Varl's mother) who teaches the neighboring slaves to read.), Varl herself is an oddity for her independent spirit and her literary-ness.

The book's conceit is that Varl is embroidering the poems we read onto squares of cloth that she wears beneath her dress, a kind of coccoon (Larva/Varl) from which she will emerge, free (the name, actually, that her mother wanted to give her). Now that I write it out, this all sounds a bit convoluted. But I bought it. I read it. The poems sang.

All this setup, interesting as it is, is less important than what seems to be the poems central concern: the nature of freedom, of slavery. Moss moves into complicated territory, into taboos and moral uncertainties. Varl talks of her master's love for her – the dialogue comes to seem much like that of an abused daughter talking about her father's love. She ends up questioning what freedom is-- whether she has it more assuredly in slavery or out of it, whether she really longs, after all, for freedom. It's discomfiting. So I am enaged.

Formally, this is all free verse, with stanzas and lines of varying length. The chorus of words (freedom, love, mine, smart, moth) thread the book and act like small refrains. This is my first encounter with Moss's writing, and I hear her other work is vastly different. But I'm engaged.

[Yelyzaveta Distefano · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most interesting and complex, stylistically and prose wise, book I have ever read, hands down. A book I'll be thinking about for a long time. An absolute new favorite that twisted my thought processes while reading in new ways.

[Dri · Rating 4 out of 5]

such a challenging read, so many moments of biting insight through the eyes of a person longing to be free.

[Jun Kang · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume of narrative verse and a handful of selected poems in anthologies has left me very impressed. Moss is a dense and difficult poet. In the best of her writings I am being allowed into her unconscious mind. Poetry as thought process made visible. I would put Thylias Moss among Jay Wright and Robert Haydn as one of the most gifted voices I have read in American poetry. It is tragic that Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes are what most people think of as representative black poets.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this narrative in verse, but it didn't deliver. The poetic elements were few & far between, leaving a story told in short lines. The story itself was elusive. I was never quite sure what was going on between the characters. Disappointing.

[Avary Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exquisite. Beautiful. Haunting.

[Deja · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a neo-slave narrative written in verse, this was quite a challenging read. It took some time for me to adjust to the writing style and structure (probably about 50% of the way through). However, once more acquainted with Moss’s steam of consciousness verse, I was compelled by the story. I enjoyed the elements of resistance through writing and literacy as displayed by Varl, and the overall complexity of her character in opposition to her present condition. I’m still reckoning with the ending and what is left unsaid, though I think that is the point of the book. I look forward to re-reading in the future.

[Alia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very chilling book. Read only if you can handle stories about the horrors that Black women had to endure during slavery in America. In fact, read it even if you can't. It's a narrative that everyone should acknowledge the importance of. Interesting to read in poem-format. Kudos to the poet/author. I read it a year ago and it still sends a shiver running up and down my spine.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a spanking new member, I'm beginning to see some rating inflation here. Can it be said that this is really a four or five star book? It's perfectly pleasant, yes. Not to say most of my reviews are fair...

[Meg Petersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't usually love narrative in verse, but this was so well done. I was completely enthralled in the story, but also in the language. No oversimplification here either. I loved this.