Cat... Flashcards
Can be Interpreted…
To be about Yeats relationship with maud
The poem is about a…
A dance.
…therefore the poem moves very…
…rhythmically and repetitively, making it sound like a song to dance to.
The strong, simple use of…
…rhyme also helps to build the rhythm.
Alliteration is used to…
…create soft but swift movements and the lyrical, childish tone.
“Black…
…Minnaloushe” was Maud’s cat.
The cat in this poem can be…
…to represent Yeats.
“The Moon”.
Represents Maud Gonne.
In literature the Moon is a traditional…
…symbol for women, as the waxing and waning of the moon having long been associated with the menstrual cycle.
Another reason why Yeats may have…
…chosen the moon to represent Maud. She was a traveller and revolutionary.
Moonlight is…
…seen everywhere. Hard to get away from. Can’t get her out of his head.
Her moonlight lights the…
…cat. The implication here is that despite Yeats frustration with her, Maud is behind Yeats greatness. She is the muse which drives his art - without her neither he nor his poetry would exist.
“The cat went here and there…
…/and the Moon spun around like a top”. Both movements can’t be synchronised and therefore as is also shown in ‘Among School Children’: “The yolk and the White of the one shell”. They are 2 things that belong together, but cannot physically be as one because their parts/movements are so disparate.
Contrast. The cat is…
…“Black”whereas the Moon is white. Black and white are naturally obvious opposites, and show the distance between the two objects.
Similarity. Moon changes shape throughout its…
…phases from circular to crescent, just as the cats eyes change from crescent to round. Suggestion here that whilst the 2 beings similarities could bind them.
