Poem (as the Cat)

Poem (as the Cat) - context Summary

Published 1923 in Spring and All

Published in Spring and All (1923), Williams’s brief vignette records a cat’s measured movement as a series of concrete actions. The poem’s spare lines foreground sensory detail and ordinary objects—the jam closet, flowerpot—rather than abstract commentary. Its restrained, observational tone exemplifies Williams’s objectivist aim of “no ideas but in things,” turning a small domestic moment into a precise, imagistic study of motion and attention.