Poem+Cat+by+Mary+Britton+Miller

Cat Mary Britton Miller is the author of the poem “Cat” in the book “The Random House Book of Poetry for children” selected by Jack Prelutsky. Mary has won three awards and had wrote under the name of Isabel Bolton. Mary is famous for writing poetry and fiction books for young people. This is the poem "Cat",

The black cat yawns, Opens her jaws, Stretches her legs, And shows her claws.

Then she gets up and stands on four, Long stiff legs and yawns some more.

She shows her sharp teeth, She stretches her lip, Her slice of a tongue shows up at the tip.

Lifting herself , On her delicate toes, She arches her back As high as it goes.

She lets herself down With particular care, And pads away With her tail in the air.

Poems have meanings. The poem “Cat” has a long meaning to it. In the first part, it reads: The black cat yawns, Opens her jaws, Stretches her legs, and shows her claws, means that a black she-cat is yawning and waking up and flexing her claws. Then she gets up and stands on four, Long stiff legs and yawns some more. This means that she’s yawning some more and standing up on her legs that are stiff from the nights sleep. She shows her sharp teeth, She stretches her lip, her slice of a tongue turns up at the tip. This section is saying that she shows her teeth and curls her lip back revealing the tip of her tongue. Lifting herself on her delicate toes, She arches her back as high as it goes, means that she stretches her back until it can’t go up anymore. She lets herself down with particular care, And pads away With her tail in the air meaning that she relaxes again and her back goes back to what it was before she curved it. Then she walked away making it look like she was floating on air with her tail held high in the air. That’s the meaning of the poem “Cat.”

Heidi Projpson

References: Miller M.B.M. (1983). Cat. New York, NY: Random House Inc.

Miller M.B.M. (2000). Miller, Mary Britton. Retrieved from http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/aww.03

(Miller, 1983) (Miller, 2000)