In her poem, “A Glowworm Scatters Flashes through the Moss”, Rosalia De Castro is able to visually depict the two life perspectives people had at around her time. Lines 1 to 8 addresses the perspective of man who uses science to explain his world. She says, “A glowworm scatters flashes through the moss… Abyss above, and in the depths abyss”. What she does is create the image that an “enlightened” man does not see actually see the entire world for what it is, but is simply a “glowworm” who’s “light” is merely a “flash” in the “abyss”(world). That science is only a part of the understanding of the world, and that even with it, we are still ignorant.

The second life perspective that people had at her time, were the people that were religious and had a relationship with their G-d. Throughout lines 9 to 25, she mentions how people build material things to display their relationship with G-d. For example, the poem says, “Kneeling before an image rudely carved”, “My Deity, shattered in a thousand bits”, and “When lo! from their lofty marble niches”. This shows, and as we went over in class, that people can’t truly show how they feel, and they show things physically as a way to express themselves. For example, a hug to show you love someone. The relationship with G-d is only something that occurs in one’s mind, and in the poem, people build buildings out of stone as a way to show what’s in their mind. De Castro finds this to be something that “shatters” and is “rude” towards the spiritual image of G-d.