Poem Analysis

Rujian Zhou

English II IS

Ms. Guarino

5/19/2016

Small Poem Has Big World

Poetry is a literary form that exists for thousands of years. For people who do not know poems, they are like mystic puzzles which they can not ever solve them. But for people who understand poems, they are the most beautiful girls in the world. One of the most beautiful, graceful and meaningful forms of literature in the world is  poetry, which contains a lot of deep meanings in just a few words. Reading and understanding a poem is an adventure for people, and people can see a big literary world through the small poems during this adventure.

Recently, I read an interesting poem, which is Cats which written by Charles Baudelaire. I chose this poem because I like cats because they are adorable, and this poem shows exactly the cats in my mind, who are like Kings and Queens - always think they are better than everyone. In details, the poem describes the cats in their appearances and actions.

Firstly, the poem uses metaphor to compare cats with “prim scholar” and “perfervid lover”. This shows readers the image of cats that they like  prim scholars sometimes and they are like outgoing lovers sometimes, which demonstrates the emotion of cats is always changing to the readers. At the next stanza, the poem uses simile to compare cats with “partisans of carnal dalliance and science”. It just changes to another way to describe cats’ play fast and loose. This kind of repetition is amazing because it does not directly respect the contains, but uses a deeper, more thoughtful way to rearrange it. Readers like me only got its meaning after we looked deeper into the poem.

Secondly, the poem describes cats by their actions. Words like “sit”, “shudder”, “stretched” and “lies” describes the daily of cats - rest, play and rest. Cats are lazy, they sit and shudder their fur everywhere. They rest, sometimes they stretched a little, change a new way to rest, then lay on the floor and continues their dream. The poem shows exactly what are cats in just a few words, how amazing it is! In total, by these appearances and actions from cats, the poem successfully create the image of the noble cats who always think they are the king and queens of the world.

But these are only a small tip of the poem’s meaning. The poem is so successful and unique are not only because the beautiful words they have but also because they contain deeper meanings besides the surface meanings that are directly shown by words. The deeper mean of the poem is the love from the poet to the cats. From the poem, readers can know that how carefully the poet observers cats. It is not easy to describe cats’ natural by just using words, and it is even more difficult to generalize those words into a little poem. The poet must spend a lot of time with cats, to see their actions and appearances. In the poem, the poet describes cats like “prim scholar”, “perfervid lover”, “carnal dalliance”, “science” and “sphinxes”, which all clearly shows the nature of cats. Those words are not the normal person can think about, they only come to mind after long observation. Because of those, I can see poet’s love toward cats, he or she must be an extremely cats lover. Furthermore, the poet considers cats as a wisdom creature in the poem. In the poet's mind, cats are just like people. Cats are in the equal position as human beings, and they are our true friends. This is why they can show their neutral in front of us without any concerns, just like our old friends. In total, this poem expresses that cats are people’s friends, people should also love cats.

The beautiful and detail of literature are not the only highlight of this poem. This poem also has a thoughtful form in terms of structure. The poem’s structure fit with its contains very well. At the begin, the poem directly uses metaphor to describe cats, which gives readers a quick image of cats. Then uses the first stanza to give reader example, which helps to understand its contains. The second stanza uses the same way. It gives another example that cats has very high native proudness in a fun way. Then the poem changes its formats at third and fourth stanzas. The first and second stanzas have four lines, but the third and fourth stanzas have three lines only. It gives a new impression to readers by doing this, and it also has new contains. There are comparisons which are more detailed in the third and fourth stanzas, such as “Giant sphinxes stretched in depth of solitude.” At last, the poem describes cats’ eyes like “Vague Starpoints” to end the poem. People says that “Eyes are the wind of soul”, so when cats’ souls like stars in the sky, their souls must be clear and beautiful. It is the best ending for this poem.

In conclusion, this poem includes a lot of information in it. It is a mystic puzzle waiting for people to solve. After I understand it, I am impressed by the poem’s thoughtful languages that contain such great amount of information in just 14 lines. Poems are amazing because they are not just as simple as similize a large contains, poems improve the contains and use the best words which fit with the contains into these short lines of words. Poems are like a diamond in the literature, it is always attracting people to search it.