Mijbil the Otter
Fog
Explain the metaphor and free verse of 'Fog'.
The whole poem. 'The fog comes / on little cat feet. / It sits looking / over harbour and city / on silent haunches / and then moves on.' Just six short lines.
Three stages, like a cat.
- it comes: quietly, 'on little cat feet';
- it sits: 'on silent haunches' (sitting with knees bent), watching the harbour and the city;
- it moves on: without a sound, when it chooses.
A metaphor, not a simile. Sandburg never says the fog is 'like' a cat. He simply gives the fog a cat's feet, a cat's way of sitting, a cat's quiet leaving. That is a metaphor: a feature of one thing is given to another.
Make your own metaphors. The book's example: a storm is a tiger that pounces over the fields and growls. Try: a train (a snake?), fire, school, home. Then write a short poem about a storm as an animal: its force, its sound, and the sudden calm after.
Free verse. The poem has no rhyme scheme and no regular rhythm. Poetry like this is called free verse.
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