The Bat is a poem by Ruth Pitter and talks about a literal meaning, while diving into a deeper

meaning which is personal to the poet. It is about the wrongful judgment of the hatred for a bat,
which turned into a love for it. At the same time, it is a journey of the growing inspiration the
author gets as time passes, which leads to the beautiful creation of his work.

The first stanza starts with a description of a dark and dull bat. The author starts with a stand
as an observer in the first person perspective, which reveals this poem to be a personal
experience he entails. He starts out by describing a bat with negative diction, to portray his
hatred and disgust towards the bat using imagery such as “lightless”, “murky,erratic” which
appeals to the senses of touch, smell, sight in the audience. This gives the impression of a
surrounding with the absence of light, which relates to his absence of ideas towards the making
of a work. Then the allusion of a Muse is introduced, which is an inspiration of creativity. He
mentions that the Muse views the bat as “devilish” “cold,clammy”, which relates to the absence
of creativity in his mind.

The second stanza continues the image of disgust and darkness such as “dark as sin”, but
changes to a feeling of pity to the audience when the bat is found limping. This foreshadows the
changed perception in the author towards the bat. A marker for a slight representation of light is
mentioned as the “lamplight” which relates to the slowly seeping inspiration the author feels.
The lamplight represents artificiality, which gives the effect of an unnatural attempt to spark
creativity. The representation of the lamp light is shown in the third stanza, when he turn fear
into love, even though he feels “horror”. This shows the authors balance between a spark and
darkness he still feels. An image of a “twilight light” is introduced in order to show a natural
source of light, which is a volta towards his hatred of the bat.

The fourth stanza changes in tone to a hopeful and delighted image. This is where the bat is
described as paradoxical to the negative statements made in the first and second stanzas. He
uses diction such as “clean as light, smooth as silk” , which changes the mood and gives the
effect of happiness and delight to the audience. He is now able to fully grasp the idea for a work
and this is supported by the word “translucent” which means complete transparency. The
darkness that he struggled with is now covered in light, which represents his fully inspired mind.

The last stanza is the full revelation of his love towards the bat, this makes the audience feel
compassion towards the bat. This conveyed feeling is amplified by the “mothers care” which
created a feeling of tenderness and comfortability. The last line “and bear my blessing to your
kind in air” represents the image of a healed bat flying towards his species. This shows the fully
completed work of the author, as he releases it to his audience. He not only releases the story
of a bat, but the feelings of darkness to light and his personal experience of a struggle for
inspiration.

Looking back at the poem, it is realized that the setting goes from night to morning. This is
noticed when a “lamplight” is used, which shows the lack of visibility. It changes to a twilight
light, which shows that the sun is rising towards the bat. An unusual sight, since bats usually
thrive at night and sleep in the morning.. This shows that the experience has not only changed
the author, but also the bat. In his hopes that it will inspire his audience.The author does this by
using a rhyme scheme at the end of a line, which creates the effect of resonance in the reader's
mind and allows the message the author sends to be “clinging” to them.

Overall, “the bat” tells the story of the growing feeling of love. At the same time, the growing
inspiration the author gets in his journey to creation. The author’s purpose is to send across the
message of creativity through a personal poem and a metaphor of a bat. This is done through
his use of different stylistic features and language choices.