LAWRENCE CLASSES

ENGLISH LITERATURE
FOG (POEM)
NOTES
Sept-22/cl-10/CBSE/AP

Introduction- Fog is a very small poem written by Carl Sandburg. He has described the
process of arrival of the fog into a city and a harbour. He has very beautifully compared it to a
cat.

Summary- In this poem, the poet has beautifully shown how the fog comes stealing forward
just like a cat does. The poet Carl Sandburg gives a wonderful comparison between the fog and
a kitten. When it arrives, it is so slow that you hardly notice it until you see or feel it. The same
happens with the fog. Nobody can predict about the arrival of fog. Fog arrives quietly and
engulfs the entire place and stay on for some time. It creates troubles for everyone but stays
there. It is not aware of what is happening around it. Fog causes many hurdles and incidents
but it does not stay at one place for a long time. As problems are over in due course of time, in
the same manner fog also disappears and it becomes clear all around.

Poetic Devices used in the poem-

1. Rhyme Scheme- The poem has no rhyme scheme since it is written in free verse.
2. Metaphor- 'Cat' refers to 'Fog' and vice versa.
3. Analogy- Comparison of fog to the cat is the analogy here throughout the poem.
4. Personification- 'It sits looking/over harbour and city'
5. Imagery- The poet gives a vivid description of the fog. The phrases 'the fog comes on',
'sits looking' and 'moves on' invoke imagery of movement in the poem.
6. Transferred Epithet- The phrase 'on silent haunches' is an example of transferred
Epithet. Here, 'haunches' are not silent. Rather, the phrase refers to how a cat silently
sits on its back legs.