The
cat
Sat
On the mat.
Whether this
qualifies as poetry may be rather doubtful, but it is perhaps the first and simplest piece of
verse children learn when they are first discovering rhyme. It describes a simple situation
which happens in many households and appears at first glance to be entirely literal. An actual
cat of flesh, blood, bone, and fur sat on a real mat. I am sitting at a desk as I write these
words. I am typing on a laptop computer. Literal language like this attempts to convey the
physical universe into words as simply and directly as possible.
However, it
is at least arguable that any writing is open to a figurative interpretation. What if the cat on
the mat is a ? It could symbolize repose, idleness, contentment or any number of other things.
The first and simplest reason why poems are often figurative is that poems are analyzed more
closely than other writing and people find figurative language in them which may or may not have
been intended. If you prefer to interpret a poem in a purely literal manner, it is often
possible to do so. Take one of the most famous poems in American literature:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not
travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I
could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
It is
perfectly possible to say:
Robert Frost describes a walk
he took in a wood (which, rather surprisingly, was entirely yellow). He stood and looked down
one road for a while, then took the other. The poem has no metaphorical meaning whatsoever and
certainly has nothing to do with making choices in life. It is purely a narrative about walking
in a wood.
Most readers, however, have not interpreted
the poem in this way.
I have written mainly about metaphors here since they
are some of the easiest examples of figurative languages to take literally, but it is possible
to do the same with other figures of speech. , for instance, is often taken literally as a
matter of sarcasm.
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