"Curiosity" by Alastair Reid
I love this poem!!! =D I thought it was fantastic and presented some great advice about life! In this poem, I saw the "cat and dog" idea as a symbol of two different kinds of people in the world. There are those who take life very seriously, always thinking of the consequences of their actions, and generally not taking any chances, playing life very safe. These are the dogs.Then there are the cats. These are the people who want to get the absolute most out of life. They take risks, go on spontaneous adventures, and don't generally think or care about the consequences of their actions because it's worth it! This type of opposition is seen between cats and dogs throughout the poem. I believe the theme of this poem was very plainly stated in a couple different lines throughout the poem. "Face it. Curiosity/ will not cause us to die --/ only lack of it will." The dash in this statement after "die" brings emphasis to the statement, causing it to come across very strongly. The theme was also state when Reid said, "Only the curious/ have, if they live, a tale worth telling at all." So take some risks! Have some fun! That is the point of this poem. What do you have to tell at the end of life when you're lying on your death bed if you've played it safe all your life?? NOTHING. I absolutely believe Alastair Reid was a cat. I think he received endless amounts of criticism and correction for his carefree attitude all his life and he's sick of it - therefore giving him an antecedent scenario to write this poem. I found it interesting that the first word if this poem began with a lower case letter, and the title served also as the first word to his poem. It was different and brought attention and emphasis to the word "curiosity;" after all, that is what this poem is all about isn't it? =P
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