Black Cat
Black Cat - meaning Summary
Reflected in Feline Gaze
The poem considers a black cat as a repository and mirror for human looking. Its dark fur seems to swallow gaze, like a padded wall calming a madman, collecting and holding the impressions cast into it. The cat appears indifferent yet attentive, then suddenly returns the gaze, revealing the viewer trapped and diminished—reflected and preserved—inside its amber eye. The poem explores perception, containment, and unexpected self-recognition.
Read Complete AnalysesA ghost, though invisible, still is like a place your sight can knock on, echoing; but here within this thick black pelt, your strongest gaze will be absorbed and utterly disappear: just as a raving madman, when nothing else can ease him, charges into his dark night howling, pounds on the padded wall, and feels the rage being taken in and pacified. She seems to hide all looks that have ever fallen into her, so that, like an audience, she can look them over, menacing and sullen, and curl to sleep with them. But all at once as if awakened, she turns her face to yours; and with a shock, you see yourself, tiny, inside the golden amber of her eyeballs suspended, like a prehistoric fly.
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