Song=Poem

Plea From a Cat Named Virtue- The Weakerthans

Why don't you ever want to play?
I'm tired of this piece of string.
You sleep as much as I do now, and you
don't eat much of anything.

I don't know who you're talking to
I made a search through every room,
but all I found was dust that moved
in shadows of the afternoon.

And listen,
about those bitter songs you sing?
They're not helping anything.
They won't make you strong.

So, we should open up the house.
Invite the tabby two doors down.
You could ask your sister, if
she doesn't bring her Basset Hound.
Ask of things you shouldn't miss:
tape-hiss and the Modern Man,
The Cold War and Card Catalogues,
to come and join us if they can,

for girly drinks and parlor games.
We'll pass around the easy lie
of absolutely no regrets,
and later maybe you could try
to let your losses dangle off
the sharp edge of a century,
and talk about the weather, or
how the weather used to be.

And I'll cater
with all the birds that I can kill.
Let their tiny feathers fill
disappointment.

Lie down;
lick the sorrow from your skin.
Scratch the terror and begin
to believe you're strong.

All you ever want to do is drink and watch TV,
and frankly that thing doesn't really interest me.
I swear I'm going to bite you hard and taste your tinny blood
if you don't stop the self-defeating lies you've been repeating
since the day you brought me home.
I know you're strong.



I enjoy this song and how it seems to be from the point of view of a cat. I see this song as an entertaining poem due to the point of view, but also a sad poem due to the depression that the cat wants his owner to get out of. The poem is from the persona of a cat, therefore, it contains personification. The cat is telling his owner to be strong and be more social. In order to say this the cat tells his owner to do things as a cat would "lick the sorrow from your skin. Scratch the terror and begin to believe you're strong." I liked that advice from a cat. There is also rhyming. And a simile "you sleep as much as I do now". The owner sleeps as much as the cat does now due to their depression. There is even visual imagery with the dust in shadows.