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Personification is the most prevalent form of figurative language in the poem. Both the cats and dogs are personified to represent different 'types' of humans.
"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."
"A cat minority of one/ is all that can be counted on/ to tell the truth."
If one were to take the poem literally, it'd be a pretty strange ride. The poem would then only be about cats that have strangely human lives who aren't liked by dogs.
The imagery in the poem is largely used to create the sense that the cats and dogs are symbolic of human nature as a whole.
"... 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."
Curiosity can be defined as a strong desire to learn something; this is a central idea to the poem and the word is used often, but the poem gains more meaning when one addresses its connotation.
The author uses the connotation of cats and dogs, their relationship as nemesis, to create a more human effect.
The author uses images from human life in order to emphasize the difference between the way the two types live.
Curiosity has the connotation of being more vital; the idea of actively searching inspires a sense of empathy and admiration.
By Alastair Reid
Curiosity's theme is that curiosity is necessary for living - not life, but living. Those who have curiosity and don't conform to society are often looked down on by other members of society. This is exemplified in the last stanza.
This poem admires the cats and the values they represent and is dismissive of the judgement passed by the dogs
Overall, the tone is didactic. The author clearly favors the lifestyle of the cats over the dogs and is seeking to inspire others to his point of view.
This shows especially in his description of the idyll that the author says is probably a hell and the depiction of the cats as prophets.
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.
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.
This poem uses assonance, consonance, and an irregular rhyme scheme to weave together a lesson. These sound devices make the speaker sound like an artist, a slam poet, but also lend a prophetic tone to the poem.