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Essay / Elements of Poetry Come to Life teaching a lesson to readers. . Although the poem is amusing, it is intelligently written and arranged. Gray weaves humor, imagery, and advice into a story to form a poem that will never be forgotten. The poem itself and the message it conveys are relevant. Thomas Gray's style and use of imagery, diction, and structure in his engaging poem help warn his readers about striving for opulence and superiority. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original EssayThe style and message of Thomas Gray's poem makes it easy for me to connect with it. First of all, it depicts a funny scene of a cat in great detail and enjoyable to read. There is an iambic rhythm throughout the poem as well as a rhyming pattern. At first glance, his writing may seem too immature or playful, but beneath the surface, Thomas Gray skillfully arranges words and structure. I connect to his style because I'm very goofy myself and I like fun poetry with deeper meaning. As for advice to readers, I will always remember this poem and Thomas Gray's warning. It absorbs readers and captures their attention by describing the story of the cat, much like a children's fable. Gray allows readers, myself included, to put themselves in the cats' shoes. It builds anticipation and tempts readers throughout the poem until we fall into the trap of the poem's warning, realizing our mistake too late. Thomas Gray incorporates imagery from different senses to draw readers into the poem so that they can identify with Selima the cat. For visual imagery, he starts by giving readers a visual perspective of a cat. He describes in detail the side of the vase, "where the gayest art of China was dyed" (line 2), because at the cat's level of vision, the side of the vase is "high" (line 1). Rather than acting as a spectator to the scene, Gray forces readers to share in the cat's experience. Likewise, Gray uses tactile imagery to further connect readers to the chat. At the beginning, readers physically feel the cat's happiness when “Sélima's conscious tail declares its joy” (line 7). Similarly, readers feel themselves slipping and falling into the bathtub when "the slippery edge of his feet seduces" (line 29), then they tumble "head down" (line 30). Although the poem is not written from a personal point of view, Gray effectively places readers in the scene so that they learn from Selima's mistake. Thomas Gray uses diction throughout the poem to effectively give his advice to avoid the temptations of opulence and superiority. The words he uses to describe the cat's physical appearance have connotations of nobility and luxury. For example, its legs are “velvet” (line 9), its ears are “jet” (line 11), and its eyes are “emerald” (line 11). Thus, Gray warns readers against cats or people who decorate themselves lavishly. Additionally, the cat desires to be superior and noble. She is first attracted to the “noble” vase (line 1) with its “azure flowers” (line 3). Azure is defined as the color of the sky as well as a heraldic blue. Additionally, Selima searches for goldfish that have “the Tyrian hue of scaly armor to the richest purple” (line 17) and “betrayed a golden glow” (18). Gray's choice of “betrayed” foreshadows the end of the poem and the fall of Sélima. Thus, Gray suggests that a vain desire to appear superior and noble may be even more.
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