Moly by Thom Gunn

Moly is a mythical herb mentioned in Homer's Odyssey. Hermes provides it to Odysseus as a safeguard against Circe, who has transformed his crew into swine. Gunn adopts it as a title because his poem explores a similar struggle — the experience of being in a state of change, stuck between human and animal — and the urgent quest for anything that can bring you back to who you truly are.

It's not just about drugs; the drug context plays a real and intentional role. Gunn wrote the Moly collection while on LSD, and the experience of ego dissolution — that feeling of losing your sense of self — aligns perfectly with the Circe myth. The poem operates on both levels simultaneously, and Gunn never forces you to pick one over the other.

Syllabic metre — which counts syllables per line instead of stresses — provides the poem with a subtle, almost concealed structure. For Gunn, that formal control is the moly; it's the human discipline that shapes the wild chaos of the subject matter. Free verse would have seemed too unwieldy for a poem focused on the fear of losing form.

The speaker is a man being turned into a pig by Circe's magic—essentially, one of Odysseus's crew from the myth. However, Gunn’s use of the first person creates such a sense of immediacy that the speaker also feels like the poet himself or anyone experiencing an unwanted transformation.

The poem presents identity as something delicate and physical — it exists in the unique form of a human body and in our ability to reflect on ourselves. When those aspects are at risk, what remains? Gunn doesn't offer an easy answer. The speaker continues to seek, representing a form of identity in itself, but the poem doesn't guarantee any sort of restoration.

The title poem establishes the main tension of the collection: using classical myth to explore modern experiences, and applying formal control to navigate through psychic or chemical turmoil. The other poems also grapple with similar themes — transformation, the body, and what endures through altered states — which positions 'Moly' as the central theme that ties the entire book together.

Neither cleanly. The speaker continues to search at the end, indicating he hasn't given up, yet Gunn doesn't offer a rescue. The mood leans more towards determined endurance than hope or despair — a hallmark of Gunn, who was skeptical of easy comfort in poetry.

Most poets who draw inspiration from Homer often adopt Odysseus's viewpoint — the hero who seems in command of his destiny. In contrast, Gunn chooses to view the story through the eyes of a transformed crew member, someone who experiences events rather than controls them. This shift from hero to victim brings the myth closer to home, making it feel more immediate and personal instead of grand and remote.