Cats!

T.S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” is an enjoyable read and as a child who loved animals I enjoyed it when I finally picked it up a couple years ago. Long before opening the book of poems though, I saw Cats the Musical. When I was little I knew a handful of the songs because we had a cd of Andrew Lloyd Webber songs. My very favorite was Magical Mr. Mistoffoles! The musical is interesting but truly, so strange. From the book we read the poem of “Macavity the Mystery Cat”. If one is going to read this poem it’s helpful to read my favorite part of the book, “The Naming of Cats”. Eliot explains that all cats have an everyday name their owner gives them but they also have a name that is only theirs and no others. Here is the last lines of the poem in Eliot’s own well phrased words:

“The name that no human research can discover - But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess. When you notice a cat in profound meditation, The reason, I tell you, is always the same: His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name: His ineffable effable Effanineffable Deep and inscrutable singular Name.”

It is amazing to me how easily he can keep his words in correct rhyme and rhythme and still convey his point so well and fluently.