GyanpithIn this short free-verse poem, Carl Sandburg compares the fog to a cat that arrives silently, sits watching the harbour and city, and then moves on. This page gives complete answers to all the questions on the poem.
Key points
- The poem uses an extended metaphor that compares the fog to a cat.
- The fog comes silently "on little cat feet", just as a cat moves softly.
- Like a cat on its haunches, the fog sits quietly looking over the harbour and the city.
- The fog leaves without warning, as an independent cat simply moves on.
- The poem is written in free verse, with no fixed rhyme scheme or regular rhythm.
Thinking about the Poem
1. (i) What does Sandburg think the fog is like?
Sandburg thinks the fog is like a cat. He never uses the word "like", but he gives the fog a cat's feet, a cat's way of sitting and a cat's habit of quietly walking away.
(ii) How does the fog come?
The fog comes "on little cat feet", that is, softly and silently, without any noise or warning. Just as a cat creeps in so quietly that no one notices it, the fog slowly spreads over the place before people become aware of it.
(iii) What does 'it' in the third line refer to?
In the third line, "It sits looking", the word "it" refers to the fog, which the poet pictures as a cat sitting and watching.
(iv) Does the poet actually say that the fog is like a cat? Find three things that tell us that the fog is like a cat.
No, the poet does not actually say that the fog is like a cat. He uses a metaphor and lets us understand the comparison through the cat's actions. Three things tell us that the fog is like a cat:
(a) It comes "on little cat feet" — silently and softly, as a cat walks.
(b) It "sits looking over harbour and city on silent haunches" — like a cat sitting with its knees bent, calmly watching everything around it.
(c) It "then moves on" — just as a cat leaves suddenly and quietly when it wishes, the fog drifts away without warning.
2. You know that a metaphor compares two things by transferring a feature of one thing to the other (See Unit 1).
(i) Find metaphors for the following words and complete the table below. Also try to say how they are alike. The first is done for you.
| Word | Metaphor | How they are alike |
|---|---|---|
| Storm | tiger | pounces over the fields, growls |
| Train | snake | it is long and winds its way along the tracks, hissing and wriggling through the countryside |
| Fire | dragon | it spits flames, roars and swallows everything in its path |
| School | beehive | it is full of busy, buzzing children working and moving about all day |
| Home | nest | it is a warm, safe shelter where the family lives together and is cared for |
You may also use: train — iron horse; fire — hungry beast; school — garden (where young minds grow); home — haven.
(ii) Think about a storm. Try to visualise the force of the storm, hear the sound of the storm, feel the power of the storm and the sudden calm that happens afterwards. Write a poem about the storm comparing it with an animal.
The Storm
The storm is a tiger
that wakes in the hills.
It leaps from the clouds
with a growl of thunder,
its claws of lightning
tearing the dark sky.
It roars through the forest,
shakes the trembling trees,
and lashes the fields
with its striped tail of rain.
Then, tired at last,
it licks its wet paws,
lies down in the valley
and falls asleep.
The world is silent,
washed and still.
(The poem compares the storm to a tiger: its thunder is the tiger's growl, lightning is its claws, and the calm after the storm is the tiger falling asleep.)
3. Does this poem have a rhyme scheme? Poetry that does not have an obvious rhythm or rhyme is called 'free verse'.
No, the poem does not have a rhyme scheme. The line endings — "comes", "feet", "looking", "city", "haunches", "on" — do not rhyme, and the lines are of uneven length with no regular rhythm. So "Fog" is written in free verse. This simple, natural style suits the poem, as it lets the short lines move quietly and slowly, just like the fog and the cat it describes.