Character
Summary
Short – Questions
1. "Concrete Cat" is an
example of a concrete poem. How?
2. Why is the word ‘mouse’ upside down?
3. What possible pun might be seen in
the cat’s middle stripe?
4. Concrete Cat
Dorthi Charles
Character
Cat : with all letters
Mouse : "
Litter box : "
One Sentence Summary : Concrete
cat is a picture poem which is no listening but for watching and enjoying.
Summary
Concrete cat is a concrete
poem. A concrete poem is an experimental poem, which verbally deals with visual
ideas with an attempt to articulate visual thinking and bring the aesthetic
principle of paintings into the poetry. It is mostly written to look at
although it uses letters instead of painting brush.
In “Concrete Cat” we can see Dorthi Charles has used black letters and placed
it in such a manner that it shows us the picture of a cat on the page. To make
the picture more vivid, she has used pointed letters. “A” shows the pointed
ears of cat, the capital “Y” is used to show the wide opened eyes of cat as it
is approaching food. The stripes, whiskers, mouth, paw and tail also made
visible by appropriate arrangement of letters. The poet has also associated
some catness with the concrete cat. For example a mouse is shown upside down.
It means the cat has recently killed it, which is cat’s nature. Similarly, the
letter “U” is used mouth to suggest that a cat licks its food. There are some
litter boxes at the corner, which suggests that the cat is in a storeroom. The
food kept near it also suggests that the cat is a domestic one.
The poet has also used a pun in the poem. A pun is a device of figurative
language in which a word with two meanings is playfully used in a context. The
punning words are spelled and pronounced in the same way. We find the mid
stripe on the cat’s body can be read as “stripe”, which means a long extended
black line on a cat’s body. At the same time it can also be read as “tripes”,
which means the food inside its stomach.
Short – Questions
1. "Concrete Cat" is an example of a concrete poem. How?
Of course, 'concrete cat' is an example of a "Concrete Poem". According to Gabriel Rossettie a poet has said that 'a poem must reflect the true physical appearance of the things what we want to describe'. In this sense, this work of art is a poem. Because letters and words combination make us clear about the catness, its life style, food and atmosphere etc.
2. Why is the word ‘mouse’ upside down?
The poem is an example of concrete poem. It is for enjoying by watching rather than reading. The word ‘mouse’ is upside down because the poet wants to suggest that it has been killed and its tripes have been extracted and devoured by the cat. The mouse already killed by the cat so after dead most of the animal lie down in that way.
3. What possible pun might be seen in the cat’s middle stripe?
As we know that the poem is an example of a concrete poem which is for watching and enjoying. But not at all, which help us to understand what it is, and sometimes makes us to think about their structure. This means it has some pun too, the cat’s middle stripes can be read as ‘tripes’ which means stomach tissue of an animal for use as a food. This suggests that the cat’s stomach is filled with the tripes of the mouse that it has devoured. Here stripe and tripes are two overlapping words which makes pun.
.jpg)
