It occurs to me that this sort of poem used to bewilder me. It's not about anything. Just a day in the life of a firecat and some bucks. I suppose I would have preferred some heavy-handed meditation on death, or Man's Place in the World, or something. But actually the poem can be appreciated in much the same way a photograph of nature can be appreciated. I like the way Stevens does not anthropomorphize the animals, too. It actually shows a deep understanding of the way nature works. There's a certain alien quality to the way animals behave, and that quality is captured perfectly here.
I could try to tie this in specifically to Buddhism, but I think that would sound unneccessarily didactic and artificial. I think it's okay just to experience the poem.
2 comments:
What's a firecat? No animal I have heard of. Not in the dictionary.
A flaming feline?
I assume a firecat is a colloquial expression for a large predator such as a mountain lion. I also was stumped when I turned to the dictionary. This happens quite often with Stevens.
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