a) The Trees

Adrienne Rich describes trees moving out of a house into the forest where they belong. All night the roots work to break free of the veranda floor; by morning the glass is broken and they are gone. The moon, earlier broken like a mirror, is seen whole again. Deeper meaning: suppressed beings — especially women — breaking free to claim their natural place.

b) A Tiger in the Zoo

Leslie Norris contrasts the caged tiger with the free tiger. In the zoo he takes a few quiet steps on pads of velvet, locked in a concrete cell, his strength behind bars, ignoring visitors and staring at the brilliant stars. In the jungle he should be lurking in shadow and terrorising the village. The poem protests against the loss of freedom — wild animals belong to the wild.

c) Fog

Carl Sandburg compares the fog to a cat in a very short poem. The fog comes on little cat feet, sits looking over the harbour and city on silent haunches, and then moves on. Through this single extended metaphor the poet shows how fog arrives silently and softly, stays a while, and departs quietly — just like a cat.