Fog · Class 10 English · First Flight Poetry: quick revision, 36 bites

The Shortest Poem in the Course

Twenty-one words. Four questions.

Takeaway. Everything in this poem is doing work.

What Is the Fog Like?

Set question 1(i), answerable in a word.

**A cat.**

Takeaway. The whole poem, in one noun.

How Does It Come?

Set question 1(ii).

Takeaway. Three adverbs and a quotation.

Nobody Sees Fog Arrive

Why is that so exact?

Takeaway. The comparison is not decorative. It is accurate.

‘Little’

One adjective worth noticing.

Fog is **enormous** — it covers a whole **city** in this poem — but it arrives on **small, quiet feet**.

Takeaway. A contrast doing real work in one word.

What Does ‘It’ Refer To?

Set question 1(iii), and it is not trivial.

Takeaway. One word, and it is easy to get wrong.

The Poem Never Says It Again

So why does the question get asked at all?

After the **first line** the word 'fog' **never returns**. From line three there is only **'it'**.

Takeaway. The confusion is deliberate, and it is the poem's method.

Sitting On Silent Haunches

The middle of the poem.

Takeaway. Two words, and the posture is complete.

Harbour and City

What has it been given to look at?

Something **enormous**, in **three words**.

Takeaway. Scale supplied, and then dropped.

‘And Then Moves On’

The whole departure, in three words.

Takeaway. Nothing drives the fog away. That is the point.

He Never Says It Is Like a Cat

Set question 1(iv) — the one that matters most.

Takeaway. Answer 'no', then prove it by the missing words.

Feet, Haunches, Moves On

And then the three things the question asks for.

Takeaway. Three behaviours. Nothing else in the poem is needed.

What a Metaphor Is

The textbook supplies the definition itself.

It **compares two things** by **taking a feature of the one and giving it to the other**.

Takeaway. Printed inside the question, with a reference back to an earlier unit.

Metaphor or Simile?

The commonest confusion in the whole poetry section.

Takeaway. LIKE or AS → simile. Nothing → metaphor.

A Metaphor, Start To Finish

So which is this poem?

Takeaway. Calling this poem a simile loses a mark and misses the point.

A Kind of Metaphor

Where does personification fit?

The kind in which the feature transferred belongs to something **alive**.

Takeaway. Not a separate device. A subtype.

Storm · Tiger · Pounces, Growls

Look hard at the row the textbook fills in for you.

Takeaway. The model tells you exactly how full an answer must be.

What Does It Let You Say Next?

The test for any row you write.

Takeaway. A metaphor is judged by what it lets you write afterwards.

Filling In the Table

Suggestions, not answers — the exercise wants your own.

Takeaway. Noun plus verbs, every time.

Count the Correspondences

What separates a good metaphor from a weak one?

The **number of places where it fits**.

Takeaway. Look for three or four before committing.

Five, in Six Lines

Now count them in Sandburg's poem.

Takeaway. Fog and cat match at five separate points.

Metaphors That Have Died

And the other danger.

Takeaway. Sandburg's cat is the opposite: nobody has worn it out.

Four Instructions

The writing task, and it tells you how.

Takeaway. The question contains its own marking scheme.

Choose the Animal Last

How to plan the poem.

Takeaway. The poem you are studying has just shown you how.

Does It Rhyme?

Set question 3, and the proof takes one line.

Takeaway. Answer, then prove it by listing.

No Regular Metre Either

And the beat?

Takeaway. Neither rhyme nor metre. Both given up together.

Free Verse

The textbook supplies the term in the same breath.

**Free verse** is the name for poetry that has **no obvious rhythm or rhyme**.

Takeaway. The answer and the term arrive together.

Not ‘Poetry With No Rules’

What free verse is NOT.

**Rhyme and metre** have been given up. **Nothing else has.**

Takeaway. Saying 'no rules' loses marks.

Rhyme Announces Itself

Now turn the fact into criticism.

Takeaway. Why? Because of what the poem is about.

The Form Agrees With the Subject

The sentence to put in an answer.

Takeaway. That converts terminology into criticism.

The Line Breaks

So what organises the poem instead?

With **no rhyme**, the **ends of the lines** take over the job.

Takeaway. Every break here is a decision, not an accident.

‘The Fog Comes’ — Then the Cat

The most important break in the poem.

Takeaway. The break is doing work no rhyme could do.

As One Sentence It Would Be Ordinary

Test it by imagining the alternative.

Printed straight through, nothing would be **wrong** with it — the cat would simply appear **in the middle of a phrase**.

Takeaway. Same words, quite different poem.

View First, Body Afterwards

And the other breaks work the same way.

Takeaway. The poem could have given the body first. It does not.

The Poem Has No Moral

Students look for one. There is none.

Takeaway. Describing something exactly is enough.

What To Write

And if a question demands a theme anyway?

Takeaway. A true answer beats a made-up moral every time.