The Cat- poem reponse 18

I think i discovered the pattern of the poems I have recently read out of our poetry packet. The theme is, conformity to society, or the lack of. This poem, The Cat, by Miroslay Holub, I think, is about confomaty too. In the first stanza, the author introduced the setting; darkness. The night time was a book with out letters. I think that this metaphor is representing the potential that night has. Not yet written on, the night could be anything. Because he lives in the city, the lights from the buildings strain out the light of the stars, creating a black black sky. Reading through the poem for a second time helps me to understand the second stanza. He is talking about a woman he loves, and she wants to go, to leave into the city. If she leaves, she will become nothing but a blending black cat into the background of the night sky. "But a window was opened and she went," at first doesn't fit with my interpretation. Then I started thinking that again the window could be symbolic, for an opportunity was opened. A chance to escape.

The woman left and she conformed to the city. She was a black cat, against the black night. The author uses repetition to help emphasize the idea that the woman was lost in the landscape. I really like the part where he says, "no one ever saw her again. Not even herself." This is powerful, because a lot of times people will conform and forget who they were before the change.

From the outside people can barely recognize her anymore, and they get brief glimpses of what she was before. When we hear her, it forces us to listen to our own selves and what we are truly. I think that's what this poem is trying to get across.... I'm just gunna go with it!