184k views
5 votes
I send you three grey cats with gifts—

(For uniformity of metaphor,
Since Bacchus, Satan, and the Hangman
Are not contemporaneous in my mythology)
I send you three grey cats with gifts,
Queen Guinevere,
To warn you, sleekly, silently
To pay the forfeit.

Source: Seiffert, Marjorie Allen. “The King Sends Three Cats to Guinevere.” BlackCatPoems.com. Black Cat Poems, n.d. Web. 7 July 2011.



What is the author’s purpose in the above passage, and how does she achieve it through her organization and choice of details?

User Mgsloan
by
6.6k points

2 Answers

3 votes
I think her purpose is to set a creepy scale in the poem, to make it eery. this is met when she says, "to warn you sleekly, silently, to pay the forfeit." 
User Ekem Chitsiga
by
6.4k points
3 votes

Answer:

Seifert's motivation is to investigate Guinevere's unfaithfulness through the eyes of King Arthur. She is utilizing the free-section verse structure and the topical arrangement of association. This is especially appropriate to the verse structure: artists should probably present themes as they pick on the grounds that the class is exploratory in nature. The subtleties picked by Seiffert are appropriate to the verse classification: non-literal language, symbolism, and references.

The metaphorical language that she utilizes, particularly the notice of "similitude," tells the crowd that King Arthur isn't sending to Guinevere these three dark felines for an arbitrary reason. The picture of the three dark felines draws on the affiliations that perusers have with the shading "dim" and with "felines", to make an image in their brains of King Arthur's learning of Guinevere's activities and his sentiments about those activities.

Arthur appears to need her rebuffed for her conduct, however he wouldn't like to make her activities open. The references that Seiffert utilizes state succinctly that she should pay for her activities with her demise.

User Barbaros Alp
by
6.9k points