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"I have always been grateful to have come first to poetry, before going on to write prose and to translate, for it is through poetry that one experiences language at its most thrilling, in its miraculous compressions of sound, sense, and shape. Poetry engenders not just a deep love of language, but also an unquenchable curiosity over what it can do." --Alastair Reid
Biographical Criticism
The first stanza of “Curiosity” gives the reader a basic introduction to the rest of the poem, explaining that a cat—an independently thinking person—is assumed to have been killed by his or her questioning ways. However, Reid continues to explain that perhaps the death, whether physical or metaphorical, could have been a symptom of uninhibited curiosity. Reid himself was a curious individual; throughout his youth, he would embark on small adventures around his home. Later in his life, he ventured around the world in a gypsy-like fashion, even after the birth of his son Jasper. “Fathering” is the last word of the first stanza’s third line; Jasper grew up without a mother. Perhaps Reid is alluding to his role as a father and how it can be quite difficult to raise a child alone.
The second stanza describes cats as people that are constantly thinking and questioning what they know in order to gain more knowledge of their positions within and outside of society. Through this questioning, these people develop a keen sense of self-awareness that “prevails” over others’ “incurious heads.” Reid insisted upon traveling immediately after graduating high school. After traveling the globe, Reid returned to his family in Scotland only to be met with scorn and deliberate disdain. Reid faced this disdain by continuing to travel and write. He did not give up his ambitions although he faced personal scrutiny. The third stanza likely relates to Reid’s conclusion concerning his adventurous spirit after facing his disgruntled family and friends. It is characterized by an encouragingly proactive tone. He insists that “curiosity will not cause [one] to die—only lack of it will.” Slightly self-righteously, Reid claims that “only the curious have, if they live, a tale/ worth telling at all.” In a more physical allusion, Reid mentions “the other side of the hill” and “that improbable country.” Reid was fascinated by different landscapes; he also inhabited many different types of landscapes in his life. Theses allusions likely pertain to the plethora of environments he encountered.
The final stanza begins by discussing dogs in relation to cats. Whereas cats represent people with their own independent methods and lifestyles, dogs represent people who adhere to the codes of society, those people that find plans, organization, and dogmatic loyalty necessary. Reid was most definitely a cat, not a dog. His family likely said that he “loved too much, [was] irresponsible/ [was] changeable, marr[ied] too many wives,/ desert[ed his] children, [and chilled] all dinner tables with tales.” Once again, Reid takes on a proactive tone. He explains that cats “are lucky,” that they are indeed “contradictory.” Yet he does not condemn these people for their behavior or their lifestyles. Instead he explains that cats understand that their lifestyles will not be painless, that they will “die/ and die again and again,/ each time with no less pain.” Reid, with his nomadic lifestyle, was forced to make friends, depart, and begin life again every time he settled in a different country. He undoubtedly faced much pain and longing during his life. Regardless, he refused to settle. Reid fed his desire for exploration and insisted upon living his life in the way he chose to live. “Curiosity” embodies his own mantra for his personal existence.
Marxist Criticism
“Curiosity” could easily be interpreted as a care-free poem that celebrates the renegade, bohemian lifestyle that was predominantly an effect of society’s disassembly and displacement after World War II. However, it is possible to develop a political interpretation of “Curiosity” in the approach of a Marxist criticism. Culturally speaking, “Curiosity” promotes the idea of independent thinking and deems it necessary for individuals to explore and understand ideological political concepts based in free-thought; in this way, individuals can develop their own method of progressing within society as a member of a collective group. However, Reid insists that it is up to readers to develop their own sense of curiosity; in short, it is the readers’ responsibility to cultivate an environment in which they can hope to satisfy an otherwise insatiable curiosity.
Reid utilizes animals to symbolize particular members of society. Cats represent the proletariat and common man. Dogs represent the upper classes which have the time and the money required to focus on moral aspects of society and culture like “well-smelt baskets, suitable wives, [and] good lunches.” Cats are characterized by dogs as being “irresponsible, [and] changeable.” Dogs condemn cats for “lov[ing] too much […] marry[ing] too many wives,/ desert[ing] their children, [and] chill[ing] all dinner tables/ with tales of their nine lives.” It would be easy for the upper tiers of society to condemn the working class for their moral discrepancies; the upper classes have the resources to prevent working class maladies. Reid rejects the dogs, saying that “dead dogs are those who do not know that” pain is part of appreciating freedom and independent thought, that pain is merely an expected side-effect of the pursuit of knowledge. By rejecting the hierarchy, Reid rejects economic privileges in favor of liberating the mind. Reid recognizes, however, that by rejecting economic classes he is thus stating that instability is preferable to the confines of an economically-based society. Instead of seeking stability, Reid insists that being “nine-lived and contradictory” is a type of beneficial instability; this instability will allow the individual to develop a free-thinking mind and be independent of class structure within society.
Politically, Reid insists that “a minority of one/ is all that can be counted on/ to tell the truth.” Reid believes that the voice of one independently thinking individual is more beneficial to a society than the grander voice of a coerced majority. Reid conveys that it is personal curiosity that provokes people to develop the skills necessary to act within society and then reject it upon recognizing its unfair basis in economic standing. It is in this way that the proletariat can undermine the hierarchy in favor of developing a society not based in exploitive capitalism. Reid’s main emphasis in “Curiosity” is the indulgence of curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge in order to apply knowledge and critical thinking to one’s personal circumstances. In this manner, “Curiosity” is not solely a poem that describes the pursuit of knowledge as a pleasant pastime but as a necessary technique to developing a sense of personal-awareness and critique within society’s confines, including the confines set-up by class structure and economic gains.
