Introducing 

Prezi AI.

Your new presentation assistant.

Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.

Loading content…
Loading…
Transcript

Curiosity by Alastair Reid

Analysis by Aidanne Johnson

Literal vs. Underlying Interpretation

Poem

Poetic Devices

Imagery

Taken literally, the poem gives cats the humanistic lives which is confusing.

Yet if we look for the underlying meaning, the author seems to be advising the reader to be a risk taker like the cats are or else life is worthless and meaningless.

Tone

  • Idiom of "curiosity killed the cat"
  • The cats and dogs are symbolic of human nature and the differences between the risk takers and the conservatives
  • "Dead dogs are those that do not know what dying is what, to live, each has to do"

may have killed the cat; more likely

the cat was just unlucky, or else curious

to see what death was like, having no cause

to go on licking paws, or fathering

litter on litter of kittens, predictably.

Nevertheless, to be curious

is dangerous enough. To distrust

what is always said, what seems,

to ask odd questions, interfere in dreams,

leave home, smell rats, have hunches

do not endear cats to those doggy circles

where well-smelt baskets, suitable wives, good lunches

are the order of things, and where prevails

much wagging of incurious heads and tails.

Face it. Curiosity

will not cause us to die–

only lack of it will.

Never to want to see

the other side of the hill

or that improbable country

where living is an idyll

(although a probable hell)

would kill us all.

Only the curious

have, if they live, a tale

worth telling at all.

Dogs say cats love too much, are irresponsible,

are changeable, marry too many wives,

desert their children, chill all dinner tables

with tales of their nine lives.

Well, they are lucky. Let them be

nine-lived and contradictory,

curious enough to change, prepared to pay

the cat price, which is to die

and die again and again,

each time with no less pain.

A cat minority of one

is all that can be counted on

to tell the truth. And what cats have to tell

on each return from hell

is this: that dying is what the living do,

that dying is what the loving do,

and that dead dogs are those who do not know

that dying is what, to live, each has to do.

The tone is pedagogic, meaning to teach the reader something.

Reid obviously prefers the cats' way to living to the dogs', meaning that he wants his readers to live a fulfilling life by taking risks

"Idyll although a probable hell"

Personification

Theme

  • "Do not endear cats to those doggy circles...)
  • (Cats love too much, are irresponsible, are changeable, marry too many wives...)

Curiosity is a necessity to live life in the fullest. Without curiosity, life is meaningless and too safe

About the Poet

Alastair Reid was a Scottish poet. His poems

were known for being very light hearted.

He was born in Galloway, Scotland and was

the son of a clergyman. In World War II, he served in the Royal Navy decoding ciphers.

Vocabulary Words

Citations

Questions

  • Incurious
  • Not eager to know something, lacking of curiosity
  • Idyll
  • Happy, peaceful, picturesque scene or incident
  • Contradictory
  • Mutually opposed or inconsistent

"Curiosity - by Alastair Reid - What Does It All Mean?" TheVillageSmith. N.p., 23 Jan. 2013. Web. 14 May 2015.

"Alastair Reid." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 14 May 2015.

Pre-Presentation Question:

  • Think about a time where you've taken a risk. Think about how your life would be different if you hadn't

Post-Presentation Questions:

  • What do you think was Reid's purpose in using cats and dogs in his poem that so obviously had to do with HUMAN nature?

  • Do you think there was a reason why the poem was free verse and had no noticeable rhyme scheme?
Learn more about creating dynamic, engaging presentations with Prezi