Blog 6: Essay # 3

Cat's Dream

How neatly a cat sleeps,
Sleeps with its paws and its posture,
Sleeps with its wicked claws,
And with its unfeeling blood,
Sleeps with all the rings a series
Of burnt circles which have formed
The odd geology of its sand-colored tail.

I should like to sleep like a cat,
With all the fur of time,
With a tongue rough as flint,
With the dry sex of fire and
After speaking to no one,
Stretch myself over the world,
Over roofs and landscapes,
With a passionate desire
To hunt the rats in my dreams.

I have seen how the cat asleep
Would undulate, how the night flowed
Through it like dark water and at times,
It was going to fall or possibly
Plunge into the bare deserted snowdrifts.

Sometimes it grew so much in sleep
Like a tiger's great-grandfather,
And would leap in the darkness over
Rooftops, clouds and volcanoes.

Sleep, sleep cat of the night with
Episcopal ceremony and your stone-carved moustache.
Take care of all our dreams
Control the obscurity
Of our slumbering prowess
With your relentless heart
And the great ruff of your tail.

Pablo Neruda was born on July 12, 1904, in the town of Parral in Chile. His father was a railway employee and, his mother died shortly after his birth. His father moved to a different town called Temuco where his father remarried Dona Trinidad Valverde. Also, the poet spent his childhood and youth life in Temuco. Pablo Neruda at the early age of thirteen contributed some articles and poems to the daily “La Mañana” ,and later he contributed to the journal “Selva Austral.” Some of the first Pablo Neruda’s poems were published in the book named “Crepusculo” in 1923. He studied French and Pedagogy at the University of Chile in Santiago.Futhermore,he was the Chilean consul in Rangoon, in Java, and then in Barcelona. He joined the Communist Party after the Second World War. Between 1970 and 1973 he served in Allende’s Chilean Government as ambassador to Paris. He married Matilde Urrutia. This well known poet had lot publications of his books.For example, Cien Sonetos de Amor ( 1959), Arte de Pajaros ( 1966), La Barcola ( 19670), Fin del Mundo ( 1969), Las Piedras del Cielo ( 1970). He died of cancer in 1973.

The poem is composed of five stanzas with irregular number of lines each. The poem is centered on the page. The rhyme scheme is unknown because it does not follow any rythm.

"Cat's Dream" describes how a human being would like to have a cat's life without dilemas. This person wishes to have its style, confort and power. For example, Sleeps with its paws and its posture (line 2)sleeps with all the rings and series (line 5)with the dry sex of fire and after speaking to no one (lines 11,12)sleep, sleep cat of the night with episcopal ceremony and your stone-carved moustache (lines 26,27)like a tiger's great grandfather, and would leap in the darkness over rooftops, clouds and volcanoes(lines 23,24,25)control of obscurity (line 29.)

The relevant symbols in this poem seems to be (1) sleep,dream,night,obscurity,sex, (2) control, tiger.

First of all, the poem is involved in a "Cat's Dream," implying the manner of sleeping of a cat. It is possible to see that "Sleep is a state of reduced consciousness during which a human or animal rests in a daily rhythm" (wiktionary.org). Also, the Diccionary of Symbolism this word represents the night which is typically associated with the obscurity and mystery of darkness. Moreover, this word has a relationship with dreams, sexual pleasure, and death. "Dream" is another symbol that is part of sleep because it has succession of images, thoughts, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep. "Night" represents the period spent sleeping. "Obscutity" is represented by darkness which it is characterized for the absence of light. "Sex" represents the instinct or attraction drawing one sex toward another, or its manifestation in life and conduct. And, other symbols that have special meaning in this poem are "Control" which means the activity of managing or exerting control over something, in this case over the obscutity (line 29). "Tiger" is considred a striped great cat (Panthera tigris.)Tigers are solitary, nocturnal hunters. All these symbols have something in common that connects the Cat's Dream poem.

The tone of this poem is relating a human being wishing to have a cat's life because its life looks easier than any human being upon the planet Earth. Furthermore, this poem makes the audience use their imagination, fantasies about living for a moment an irreal life. Thus, its tone has aconnection with dreaming life.

In conclusion, this poem has a message to the audience that is to keep dreaming all the time because it does not exist age for it. Moreover, I believe that this poem imply to people to not worried too much about the outside world problems at least for a moment.

Works Cited:

http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/symbolismproject/symbolism.html/

http://en.wiktionary.org

http://dictionary.reference.com

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu