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

Analysis, meaning and summary of William Carlos Williams's poem Poem (As the cat)

13 Comments

  1. karla says:

    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 🙂

  2. karla says:

    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

  3. Diedie says:

    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.

  4. Courtney says:

    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!

  5. Davey says:

    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.

  6. Cool Man says:

    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.

  7. Troy says:

    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).

  8. Dylan says:

    The poem is written in free verse suggesting a typical imagist poem. A visual scene is described through use of metaphor and juxtaposing.

  9. lerato says:

    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

  10. danny says:

    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.

  11. Andrea says:

    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.

  12. Katie says:

    Very nice poem. Simple..yet..it seems to work somehow.

  13. Alec says:

    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.

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