As the cat
climbed over
the top of
the jamcloset
first the right
forefoot
carefully
then the hind
stepped down
into the pit of
the empty
flowerpot
As the cat
climbed over
the top of
the jamcloset
first the right
forefoot
carefully
then the hind
stepped down
into the pit of
the empty
flowerpot
Do you have any comments, criticism, paraphrasis or analysis of this poem that you feel would assist other visitors in understanding the meaning or the theme of this poem by William Carlos Williams better? If accepted, your analysis will be added to this page of American Poems. Together we can build a wealth of information, but it will take some discipline and determination.
Hola! la verdad es que no le encontre mucha gracia a este poema, pero aunque es pequeño y simple es genial, pues aunque no tiene metrica y nada, resulta genial ver como a partir de un simple tema, se puede hacer un poema.adios 🙂
Hola! la verdad es que no le envontre mucha gracia a este poema….el gato escalando…y eso q? no se me hace una gran explicacion. mi maestra de literatura nos dijo que aunque no era un “super” tema, es un ejemplo de que es posible hacerlo con cualquier cosa que sea nuestra inspiracion, y ps, no se. NO me gustò. Adios
Hehe. It was fun to read the poem and comments. Where will a poet and some other poets’ minds meet? For me, the observation of the cat’s spontaneous and careful movement is so alike to the subtitles of creating poetry itself.
THAT POEM IS THE STUPIDEST POEM IVE EVER READ. ITS ABOUT A FREAKIN CAT NOT SEXUAL EXPERIENCE. ITS NOT SYMBOLISM HES JUST WRITING ABOUT WHAT HE SAW GOING ON AROUND HIM. ANYONE COULD DO THAT! I MIGHT AS WELL BECOME A GOD DAMN POET MYSELF!
For me it’s about catness… not a young cat or an old cat or a red or yellow cat… just a cat… through danger so very, very carefully, softly and quietly to safety. I love all the pitty pat Ps and Ts. Poems, WCW, and the “ness” of things.
Sexual experience where the person “steps” into the “empty flowerpor” which means lack of virginity, with the “flower” in the pot being a symbol of virginity, which is not there.
I agree with Ierato. Perhaps there is something in the visual displacement, the cat descends from the top to emptiness, the technique of an open downward spiralling (used almost obsessively by Wallace Stevens).
The poem is written in free verse suggesting a typical imagist poem. A visual scene is described through use of metaphor and juxtaposing.
i read this poem with my lecturer he brought so much passion and drama into the whole poem and made it so real and easy to relate with
your commments are either completely vapid and without content or simply ignorant, in the sense that it seems you read with a blind fold on.
try the title, “poem,” for a hint as to how you might start the process of reading it. this, it appears is a beutiful image of the animal of poetry: a poem as the cat.
I think that the writer of this poem was telling us that there is an empty feeling in this cats life as well as his own.
I love this poem, it really speaks to me for some strange reason.
Very nice poem. Simple..yet..it seems to work somehow.
This a unique poem. there are not that many symbols in it, but it makes you think. overall, i think it is a well thought out poem.