Revision of Poem Analysis: Cats

Rujian Zhou

English II IS

Ms. Guarino

5/26/2016

Small Poem Has Big World

“Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.” says by Carl Sandburg. Poetry is a literary form that contains a lot of information in short forms and exists for thousands of years. Recently, I read an interesting poem “Cats” written by Charles Baudelaire that lively describes the nature of the cats. Through reading this poem “Cats”, I clearly see the image of cats who are noble, adorable and emotional just like humans, and I am amazed by the writer who magically describes these lively images of cats by thoughtful structures that use the simplest language to show the complexes meanings.

I chose this poem “Cats” because this poem shows exactly the cats in my mind, who behave like Kings and Queens - always think they are more nobility than everyone. The poem describes these natures of cats lively and makes readers have clear images of cats by describing their appearances and actions.

Firstly, the poem uses metaphor to compare cats with “prim scholar” and “perfervid lover” (Line 1, Cats) in the first stanza. These words state to readers the lively image of cats that their emotions are changing all the time. They are prim scholars sometimes, who are calm and quiet. But they are unstoppable crazy like perfervid lovers another time, who are very energetic and can run all over your house all the day. At the next stanza, the poem uses simile to compare cats with “partisans of carnal dalliance and science”(Line 5, Cats). This is kind of repetition of the first stanza, which both of them describe cats’ changing moods. But the poet repeated this in a smart way, that the poet changes the method of comparison from using metaphor to simile, and the poet also changed the words from “prim scholar and perfervid lover” (Line 1, Cats) to “partisans of carnal dalliance and science” (Line 5, Cats). This kind of repetition is clever because it does not directly respect the contains, but uses a deeper, clever way to rearrange it and highlight the cats’ emotion successfully. Readers only get this meaning after look deeper into the poem. Secondly, the poem describes cats by their actions. For example, the poem uses words like “sit”, “shudder”, “stretched” and “lies” (Line 4, 8, 12, Cats) describes the daily lives of cats - rest, play, and rest. These words emphasis cats’ nature are lazy, they can sit and shudder their fur everywhere. They lay down, they stretch a little sometimes, change a new way to lay, then sleep on the floor and continue their dream. The poem lively shows the daily lives of cats in just a few words, how amazing it is! In total, by these appearances and actions from cats, the poem successfully creates the image of the noble cats who always think they are the king and queens of the world.

But if this poem’ meaning is an ocean, these meanings are just the surface of the ocean. Poems are so mystic and unique because there have deeper meanings hiding inside of the poem. The deeper mean for this poem “Cats” is the love from the poet to the cats. After reading this poem, readers can know that how carefully the poet observed cats. It is not easy to describe cats’ natural by just using those few words, and it is even more difficult to generalize those words into 14 lines. The poet must spend a lot of time with cats, to observe their actions and appearances. In the poem, the poet described cats like “prim scholar”, “perfervid lover”, “carnal dalliance”, “science” and “sphinxes” (Line 1, 5, 10, Cats) which all clearly shows the nature of cats. These words are not a normal person can think about in a short time, these words only come to mind after long observation. Because of poet’s carefully observation of cats and the thoughtful language he used, I can see poet’s love toward cats, he or she must be an extremely cats lover. Furthermore, the poet considered cats as a wisdom creature in the poem. In the poet's mind, cats are just like people, who are in the equal position as us, and 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 expressed that cats are people’s friends, and people should also love cats inside its words and meanings on the surface.

The lively and meaningful languages are not the only highlights of this poem. This poem also has a thoughtful form in terms of structure. The poem’s structures fit with its contains very well. At the beginning, the poem directly uses metaphor to describe cats, which gives readers a quick image of cats. Then uses the first stanza to give an example about cats, which helps to understand its contains. The second stanza uses the same way. For example, “If it could bend their native proudness in compliance.” (Line 8, Cats) This gives another example of cats that shows cats have very high native proudness in a fun way. Then the poem changes its structure at third and fourth stanzas. The first and second stanzas have four lines, but the third and fourth stanzas have only three lines. The poem gives a new impression to readers through 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.”(Line 10, Cats) At last, the poem describes cats’ eyes like “Vague Starpoints”(Line 14, Cats) to end the poem. There is an old phrase says that “Eyes are the wind of soul”, so when cats’ souls like stars in the sky, their souls must be clear and beautiful. What an amazing ending for the poem!

In conclusion, for people who do not know poems, poems are like mystic puzzles which people can not ever solve them. But for people who understand poems, poems are the most precious treasure in the world. The poem “Cats” includes a lot of information in its short 14 lines. It is a mystic puzzle waiting for people to solve. After I solve this puzzle and understand its meaning, I am impressed by the poem’s thoughtful languages and his true love towards cats. Poems are amazing because they are not just as simple as they look like, poets improve the contains and use the best words which fit with the contains into those few lines of poems. Poems are like treasures with diamond and gold in the literature, they are waiting for people to search it and find the deeper meaning they have.

Hunter, Charles Baudelaire - Poem. "Cats Poem." Poemhunter.com. Poem Hunter, 
3 Jan. 2003. Web. 26 May 2016.