CONCRETE CAT

“CONCRETE CAT”

- By Dorothy Charles

The poem “Concrete Cat” is the best example of “Concrete Cat” in which the poet uses the words as the visual things. Such a poem is devoid of emotions and ideas. In the present poem, the poet has depicted the picture of a cat in a action by shaping the words such as ‘ear’, ‘eye’, ‘mouth’, ‘tail’, ‘whisker’, etc. in the visible form. While going through this poem, the readers are made to feel that the poet has worked like the one who makes the concrete doll of a cat by assembling the readymade components such as ‘tail’, ‘stripe’ etc. into the form of a cat.

              In order to create the exact shape of ‘eye’, ‘mouth’ and ‘tail’ etc the poet used the words in a way that resembles the exact appearance of these things. This required the poet to capitalize ‘A’ in ‘ear’ and ‘U’ in ‘mouth’, and to use spaces between the letters in the words ‘tail’.

              For showing the cattiness of cat in action perhaps, the poet has used the word ‘mouse’ upside down. This suggests that the cat has just killed the mouse whose dead body is lying down behind it.

              Since the chief concern of the poem is to present the physical appearance of the cat having stripes all over the body, the word ‘stripe’ is repeatedly used for the exact representation of the striped cat. That can be the possible pun in the act’s middle strip.

              Discussion Q (1) since the poem is supposed to be the expression of poet’s emotions, feelings and attitudes of life. “Concrete Cat” cannot be considered a poem because it lacks all conventional elements of poetry.

CONCRETE CAT

              “Concrete Cat” is an experimental poem known as “Concrete Poem”. It is drawn by Dorothy Charles. A glimpse of this poem is sufficient to make the reader see the different between traditional poems and the concrete poem. Unlike the given poem, a traditional poem consists of ideas, emotions, feelings and attitudes of the poet towards life and society. Above all, the poet makes use of the figurative language with many literary devices such as alliteration, assonance, metre, metaphors, simile, symbols etc.

              "Concrete Cat" is not like traditional poems because it has included neither figurative language nor ides and emotions. It is a poem made for the eye. Hence the physical appearance of the cat is given the importance. As in other concrete poems, language is reduced to the level of the word. In addition to it, the words are used in a way that once can see the shape of a cat on the paper. For instance, the words such as 'ear', 'eye', 'mouth', 'whisker', 'tail', 'paw'. 'stripes', etc. are used in such a way that one sees the physical appearance of the things they stand for. In order to do so, the poet has rearranged the words in an untraditional manner. Capitalizing 'A' in ear, 'Y' in eye, and 'U', in mouth as well as using spaces between the letters in the word 'tail' indicate the attempts of the poet to create the picture of a cat.

              The given poem makes the readers perceive that the poet of such poems appears to be more an artist than a poet. The other details added in the poem such as the word 'mouse' in upside down position and the word 'dish' in one corner show the 'catness' in action. The pun in the cat's middle stripe is the only place where language aspires towards poetry and becomes figurative. If one is asked the question. Whether one calls such a work of art as poem, one tends to answer that it is a poem from the experimental point of view. Otherwise, one is quick to give the answer in the negative.