TS Eliot Wisdom for Jones Soda-LOLcat

You've read of several kinds of Cat,
And my opinion now is that
You should need no interpreter
To understand their character.

You now have learned enough to see
That Cats are much like you and me
And other people whom we find
Possessed by various types of mind.

For some are sane and some are mad
And some are good and some are bad
And some are better, some are worse-
But all may be described in verse.

You've seen them both at work and games,
And learnt about their proper names,
Their habits and their habitat:
But

How would you ad-dress a Cat?

So first, your memory I'll jog,
And say: A CAT IS NOT A DOG.

Now Dogs pretend they like to fight;
They often bark, more seldom bite;
But yet a Dog is, on the whole,
What you would call a simple soul.

Of course I'm not including Pekes,
And such fantastic canine freaks.

The usual Dog about the Town
Is much inclined to play the clown,
And far from showing too much pride
Is frequently undignified.

He's very easily taken in-
Just chuck him underneath the chin
Or slap his back or shake his paw,
and he will gambol and guffaw.

He's such an easy-going lout,
He'll answer any hail or shout.

Again, I must remind you that
A Dog's a Dog-A CAT''S A CAT.

With Cats, some say, one rule is true:
Don't speak till you are spoken to.
Myself, I do not hold with that-
I say, you should ad-dress a Cat.

But always keep in mind that he
Resents familiarity.
I bow, and taking off my hat,
Ad-dress him in this form:

But if he is the Cat next door,
Whom I have often met before
(He comes to see me in my flat)
I greet him with an OOPSA CAT!

I've heard them call him James Buz-James-
But we've not got so far as names.

Before a Cat will condescend
To treat you as a trusted friend,
Some little token of esteem
Is needed, like a dish of cream;

And you might now and then supply
Some caviare, or Strassburg Pie,
Some potted grouse, or salmon paste
He's sure to have his personal taste.

(I know a Cat, who makes a habit
Of eating nothing else but rabbit,
And when he's finished, licks his paws
So's not to waste the onion sauce.)

A Cat's entitled to expect
These evidences of respect.
And so in time you reach your aim,
And finally call him by his Name.

So this is this, and that is that:
And there's how you AD-DRESS A CAT.

This poem, AD-DRESSING OF CATS, was taken from ' Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats' published in 1939. Some of his feline strays were brought to life in the hit musical 'Cats'.

T.S. Eliot, Thomas Stearns Eliot, was born 1888 in St Louis Missouri where he lived until he was eighteen. His family, religious intellectuals influenced his work. He was a Harvard graduate, traveled Europe and finally settled in England. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1949.

His poetry developed 'modern' poetry of the first half of the twentieth century. He was considered a leader of the movement. No other poet had so penetrating and pervasive an influence on his own times. Like other literary movements, modernism began as a reaction against the literature of the preceding period, against the tastes and standards of Victorianism. Throughout his development the essential technique of symbolism remains basic. The absence of explanatory statements and the emphasis on tone account for part of the difficulty in his poetry. While the tone is firm, the images and situations are symbols of ideas and attitudes of themes. The poems have thematic development that is quite logical and meaningful. The intellectuality of Eliot's work adds to the difficulty but at the same time gives it exactness of meaning.

In his own words taken from 'The Metaphysical Poets' in Selected Essays 1932 his meaning is that of a man who has submitted himself to the variety and complexity, to the most serious and most painful aspects, of modern civilization.

'We can only say that it appears likely that poets in our civilization, as it exists at present, must be difficult. Our civilization comprehends great variety and complexity, and this variety and complexity, playing upon a refined sensibility, must produce various complex results. The poet must become more and more comprehensive, more allusive, more indirect, in order to force, to dislocate if necessary, language into his meaning.'