The Moth and the Star

by Una Marson

A Collection of Poetry.

Genres: Poetry

103 pages, Online Text

Published January 1, 1937

About the author

Una Maud Victoria Marson was a Jamaican feminist, activist and writer, producing poems, plays and radio programmes.

She travelled to London in 1932 and became the first black woman to be employed by the BBC during World War II. In 1942, she became producer of the programme Calling the West Indies, turning it into Caribbean Voices, which became an important forum for Caribbean literary work.

Reviews

[Amelia Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's rare that I will read an anthology and give it 5 stars, but the way in which Marson affects the reader and creates a cohesive flow of feeling and experiences through her poetry is both impressive and powerful. She has a beautiful ability to put herself in the shoes of others and explain the hardships from their side of the story, especially in terms of race in 1930s London. It's such a shame that this anthology is out of print as it should be read by thousands around the world to bring a little love in these still judgemental times.

[Kitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marson writes The Moth and The Star from the perspective of a black female activist, and these elements have a heavy influence on her work. This collection of poetry explores several different themes, including those of; relationships, race, women's position within society. She discusses the balance of racial expectations and feminism. Marson expresses how these elements of society have affected her life. Her exploration of these topics is not patronising, instead, she wishes to explain to the reader how they must respond to and improve these elements of society.
However, it is not just societal elements that Marson focuses upon. There also is an appreciation of the natural world, with which Marson often equates emotions.
This collection was read for my university course.

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much as I enjoyed a large handful of the poems in this collection I felt the 'Poems of Love' section really let the it down. In the first and second section we are offered a brilliant imitation of the Romantic poetic style, forcing the reader to confront questions on voice in poetry. The way Marson explores nature in the second section felt quite original and sparked some interesting thoughts. Then the disappointment of the love poetry dampened my enjoyment. The final section on 'Poems of Life' did redeem the rather on the nose poems in the previous section but still offered me some problems reading them. Overall however I did enjoy the collection quite a lot and I would recommend it. Given a more specific score I'd say it is a solid 3.7/5.