Essay Preview: Fog
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“Fog”
The poem “Fog” By Carl Sandburg, begins with the simple line, the fog comes / on little cat feet. The narrator is comparing the movement of the fog to the silent, spry footsteps of a cat, an animal who is able to creep toward its destination without warning. Fog often arrives quickly, yet completely, as it covers a city or a harbor.
The author further develops the comparison between cat and fog in the second stanza of the poem. In this stanza, the fog has arrived above the city where it sits looking / over harbor and city much as a cat does when it arrives at its destination.
Next, he also states that the fog is sitting on silent haunches as it looks out over the harbor and city, and, indeed, few creatures can sit as silently and patiently as the cat. When a cat is on its haunches, they cannot be captured because it is easy for them to escape with a quick jump. This stance also implies that their presence is always temporary. Cats, like fog, are always ready to move on when it pleases them. Finally, he explains that after looking over harbor and city the fog then moves on. Cats are known to be wandering creatures, stopping for a time and then moving on from destination to destination. Again, the fog is compared to the cat in that the fog hovers silently, but it never stays in one place too long. Fog either rolls on to another destination or disappears altogether.