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Fog

The poem 'Fog' by Carl Sandburg personifies fog as a living being, comparing it to a cat that silently observes the city and harbour. It describes the three stages of fog: its arrival, its presence, and its retreat, emphasizing the stealthy and quiet nature of its movements. Through vivid imagery, the poem captures the essence of this natural phenomenon in a concise and poetic manner.

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Preeti Thakur
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11 views1 page

Fog

The poem 'Fog' by Carl Sandburg personifies fog as a living being, comparing it to a cat that silently observes the city and harbour. It describes the three stages of fog: its arrival, its presence, and its retreat, emphasizing the stealthy and quiet nature of its movements. Through vivid imagery, the poem captures the essence of this natural phenomenon in a concise and poetic manner.

Uploaded by

Preeti Thakur
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Fog

- Carl Sandburg

Q1. RTC

It sits looking
over harbour and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

a) what does 'it' refer to?


'It' refers to the fog, which quietly engulfs the harbour and the city.

b) what is 'it' being compared to?


'It' is being compared to a cat, who sits on its haunches, silently looking around.

c) Where does 'it' look? what does 'looking' signify?


'It' looks at the harbour and the city. Here 'looking' signifies the fog's surrounding and hovering over
the city and harbour.

d) Which poetic device has been used in 'silent haunches'?


The poetic device used is 'transferred epithet' as it is the cat that is silent, not the haunches.

Q2. How does the poet present 'fog' as a living being?

It is the poet's imagination to present 'fog' as a living being which he does by comparing it to a cat.
The poet uses the words 'comes', 'sits' and 'moves on' to project fog as a living being. It comes
stealthily like a cat, sits over the city and harbour just like a cat looks at the surroundings and then
retreats just as a cat goes away quietly.

Q3. What three stages of fog does the poem 'Fog' present?

Carl Sandburg's exceptionally small poem 'Fog' presents in a few words the three stages of fog - its
descent over the city and harbour, its stay there for sometime, and its ultimate retreat. In all these
three stages, the poet metaphorically compares its movements and behaviour to those of a cat. The
poet narrates how the fog keeps the city and the harbour so imperceptibly under its cover that no one
notices the movement of its arrival. It appears as suddenly as a cat does, moving on its little, padded
feet.

The fog shrouds the city and harbour and keeps hanging over them for sometime as if gazing at
them. Again the poet shows its stay to be like a sitting of a cat on its haunches and looking around.

However, the stay of the fog is short and ultimately it moves away. The fog retreats without disturbing
the silence pervading all around. It goes away as silently as it came - like the cat leaving one place to
go to another in a stealthy manner.
Thus, the small poem describes with the help of vivid images the arrival, the stay, and the departure
of the fog. It is a brief, but clear description of a natural phenomenon - a scientific fact presented in a
poetic style.

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