Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"The Millipede" by John Updike offers a humorous and slightly grotesque look at a commonplace domestic incident—the encounter with an uninvited millipede in the kitchen. This poem, through its vivid imagery and casual tone, explores human reactions to the natural world, even at its most benignly intrusive. Updike uses this interaction to reflect on broader themes of life, death, and the often indifferent human response to the creatures that share our spaces.

The poem begins with an exclamation, "Oi! oi! noli me tangere, no argument," which loosely translates from Latin to "don't touch me," immediately establishing a tone of comic repulsion. The speaker is confronted by "this hideous thing in the kitchen sink," setting the stage for a battle of wills between human and insect that is played out in the domestic arena of the kitchen. The use of the word "hideous" instantly colors the reader’s perception of the millipede, although it is essentially harmless.

As the millipede moves "with that slinky motion having a hundred legs imparts," its natural characteristics are highlighted, evoking a mixture of fascination and revulsion. The poem skillfully captures the creature's otherness and the physical reaction it provokes. The encounter by the breadboard, where the millipede "hesitated," anthropomorphizes the creature, suggesting a moment of mutual recognition between it and the speaker, who then "knocked it in" with a roll of paper towels.

The speaker's subsequent thought, "What do I do with the damned thing next?" is quintessentially human—a blend of annoyance and moral dilemma over the fate of a living creature that is an uninvited guest. The decision against drowning the millipede reflects a moment of empathy, juxtaposed with the speaker’s self-reflection on such a death, "wriggling against the splash down a slimy vortex black with sludge." Here, Updike uses vivid imagery to evoke a sense of the millipede’s potential suffering, which briefly humanizes the pest.

"Nature knows best, I thought, and abandoned the problem to read the newspaper," shows a return to human disinterest and detachment, shifting focus from the immediate 'crisis' to the daily routine of reading about far greater human tragedies, such as a rape. This switch in focus from the life of a small creature to the gravity of human issues underscores a common human tendency to prioritize human-scale problems over the more existential concerns of smaller creatures.

The poem concludes with the millipede’s fate being decided not by the initial protagonist but by his wife, "the real housekeeper," who casually disposes of it. Her minimal reaction, "Ooh, she pronounced, not loudly," followed by the sound of the trash compactor, mirrors the earlier dismissal by the speaker. This resolution highlights the often-thoughtless ways in which humans deal with minor annoyances, raising questions about empathy, coexistence, and the value we assign to different forms of life.

Overall, "The Millipede" uses the small drama of a millipede’s journey across a kitchen to explore themes of intrusion, indifference, and the everyday ethics of human-animal interactions. Updike delivers a snapshot of life that is at once comic, mundane, and subtly thought-provoking, inviting the reader to reflect on our often complex relationships with the natural world.

Copyright (c) 2025 PoetryExplorer

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...