Williams: Poem (As the cat)

Poem (As the cat)
by William Carlos Williams
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
flower pot

For a good analysis see: http://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-language/analysing-the-poetry-of-william-carlos-williams-english-language-essay.php

William Carlos Williams arranged this poem in a particular way – to understand it we must figure out what the form has to do with the piece.

So the line “As the cat” prompts us to ask “As the cat did what?”

As the cat climbed over what?
As the cat climbed over the top of the jamcloset – how?

first the right forefoot: This is where a clever and experienced reader of poetry will understand the joke William Carlos Williams is making.

By engaging in the questions posed by the line breaks and stanzas – we recognize with the line “forefoot” that the poem is representative of poetry itself.

Poems are broken down into metrical feet, of which there are several types, and the cat’s journey is a metaphor for poetry – the cat places its foot across a landscape, just as a poet places feet in a poem (see the lessons in Prosody).




This poem seems to be just about a cat walking into a flower pot, but I think that it is a metaphor for life. Most people walk carefully into the unknown just like the cat does.


Stepped down – into what?
The cat climbed on top of the jamcloset carefully and then stepped down into what?

ntributor
Here, the cat made a bad step with its foot – essentially William Carlos Williams is joking that he has made a bad poem (although it’s really a very good poem) by saying he misplaced a foot in the poetry.

#Note:

Poems titled poems are almost always signaling they are metaphors for poetry itself, which is the hint William Carlos Williams gives an experienced poetry reader to allow one to understand the “foot” joke