Get Full Essay Get access to this section to get all help you need with your essay and educational issues. Women were gaining a sense of independence and emancipation from the traditional patriarchal rule, and this was occurring at an increasingly rapid pace.
This friend had two pet cats, both of them female. It seemed to Gray that this incident could serve as the basis for his writing of an amusing poem from which readers could not only derive amusement but also draw a moral.
So he wrote the poem, calling it an ode though it is not strictly speaking an ode. Although not an ode, the poem may be regarded as a parody of the form. As this poem contains a story, we could also classify it as a narrative poem. Her conscious tail her joy declared; The fair round face, the snowy beard, The velvet of her paws, Her coat, that with the tortoise vies, Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes, She saw; and purred applause.
A female cat, having the name of Selima, sat leaning against a tall vessel which had been painted richly and brightly by a Chinese Craftsman, with blue-coloured flowers blooming on it. Selima was in a thoughtful mood, and in that mood she sat, gazing at the water in the large vessel which had the shape of a vase.
Selima looked at the water as if she were the most modest and the meekest of all the female cats. This cat had a fair-complexioned, round face.
She had a perfectly white beard or whiskers. She had paws which were as soft and smooth as velvet is. She had a thick and hard skin which seemed to compete with the hard and thick skin of a tortoise.
Firstly the eight represents the nine lives cats have. Selima died, and even though she called for help no one came. Even the servants Tom and Susan because the cat's master must of put Selima on a pedestal and they were jealous. From hence, ye beauties, undeceived, Know, one false step is ne’er retrieved, And be with caution bold. The hapless nymph with wonder saw; A whisker first and then a claw, With many an ardent wish, She stretched in vain to reach the prize. What female heart can gold despise? What cat’s averse to fish? Presumptuous maid! with looks intent Again she stretch’d, again she bent, Nor knew the gulf between. ”Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes” by Thomas Gray Essay Sample. Female writing during the 18th century became a popular method of expressing feminine mentality on issues that were previously considered forbidden.
Her ears were perfectly black, and her eyes were green in colour. She looked at the water in the vase, and murmured her approval of its presence there. The hapless nymph with wonder saw; A whisker first and then a claw, With many an ardent wish, She stretched in vain to reach the prize.
What female heart can gold despise?
Selima would have continued to stare at the water if she had not observed two angelic figures moving about effortlessly and without the least difficulty in the water. These figures seemed to be the spirits which controlled all the waters, and which were in charge of this water also. The rich golden colour of the fish betrayed their real identity to Selima.
The cat looked at them with wonder, but she was herself destined to meet a sad fate. The fish in the vase were the delicious food which Selima now wanted to eat.
She stretched first a whisker and then a claw, with many fervent wishes, towards the water in order to catch the fish; but all her efforts proved futile.
No woman in this world can hold gold in contempt or look at gold scornfully.‘Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes’ is, along with his ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ and his ‘Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College’, the most famous poem by Thomas Gray ().
Ode On The Death Of A Favourite Cat Drowned In A Tub Of Goldfishes by Thomas Gray.. Twas on a lofty vases side Where Chinas gayest art had dyd The azure flowrs that blow Demurest of the tabby kind The pensive Selima reclind Gazed on/5(2).
Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes by Thomas Gray Prev Article Next Article This poem, Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes, is based on an actual incident which occurred in the house of a friend of Gray’s.
Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes By Thomas Gray ’Twas on a lofty vase’s side, Where China’s gayest art had dyed The azure flowers that blow; Demurest of the tabby kind, Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes By Thomas Gray.
A cat who is the favorite is not the favorite among his peers. He is the favorite among the owners. The favorite would remain friendless because the other animals are sick of them being the favorite. In the Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes, Thomas Gray uses a cat and fish to teach a moral.
In the Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes the setting was set in the first stanza.