This poem is about people, or in this case, animals and resources, emigrating to new lands. "...small and wild/ Against a map of the known world" gives this image of insignificant people compared to the world at large. A group of guys, who cannot read or write, stand in front of a map. It may be inferred that they may not even be able to identify with it, let alone read it. "internal exiles at the age of thirteen or fourteen" tells us that these boys graduating in the class of '61 were away from home at a young age, or have had the idea that they needed to get away.
The ladybirds are caught from Lefty Lynch just as they "touch down from africa." The banana's that were not ready in color, still green, were picked and shipped over in crates, and when they arrived, they were golden.
Muldoon talks about these people, animals, and fruits as emigrants to a new place, at a relative young, and premature age. The boys are unable to read and write, yet (i think....) they leave their home, or at least want to leave their home at the young age of thirteen or fourteen. The bananas are packed and shipped when they aren't even ready to be eaten, and a ladybird is caught just as she touches down from Africa.
This poem talks about the journey of of people, animals and resources, whether it be "as some explorer", in a box ripening on it's way, or taken into captivity just as it arrives.
This could be completely out of left field, but i've just spent an hour trying to think what graduating young men, ladybirds in a match box, and bananas have in common... and i am still not sure about the title of the poem. Geography lesson, perhaps depicting how and where certain things come from that we see everyday, like people walking the street, ladybugs in the bushes, and bananas in the supermarket.
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