February

February

Margaret Atwood

This poem is basically one long inner monologue. The speaker often skips around from topic to topic, connected each thought with the previous. She begins by observing winter as a lazy time of year, that no one is too fond of. She then focuses on the cat, and how he behaves during winter. The cat jumps on her bed as a "way of telling whether or not I'm dead" (Atwood 876). This changes the tone to focus on death. The speaker believes that winter is death, and we just have to deal with. She then makes a jump to say that love is death. Loving someone or something can makes us forget what really makes us sane, and insanity leads to our downfall. The viewpoint of the poem then cycles through all the previous thoughts, until the speaker finally is fed up with February, and demands that spring comes. But dealing with all the despairs of february and winter makes the spring that much enjoyable. The best things in life are only attained after going through hardships.