To a Practical Cat
T.S. Eliot and A.C. Swinburne trade odes over generations, enriching us all
Stately, kindly, lordly friend,
Condescend
Here to sit by me, and turn
Glorious eyes that smile and burn,
Golden eyes, love’s lustrous meed,
On the golden page I read.Algernon Charles Swinburne, “To a Cat”
Silly, snarky, stately friend,
Apprehend:
Ghost words appear to me, and scroll
Glorious lines make shine the soul,
Ancient eyes, cats guard our grains
Then comfort anxious playful brains.
© 2022, Tom Tordillo, all rights reserved.
Swinburne’s “To a Cat” was published in 1904. T.S. Eliot published “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” in 1939. Andrew Lloyd Webber used Eliot’s work as libretto for “Cats.”
Eliot had less than kind words to say of Swinburne’s poetry —
…almost no one, to-day, will wish to read the whole of Swinburne. It is not because Swinburne is voluminous; certain poets, equally voluminous, must be read entire. The necessity and the difficulty of a selection are due to the peculiar nature of Swinburne’s contribution, which, it is hardly too much to say, is of a very different kind from that of any other poet of equal reputation.
T.S. Eliot, The Sacred Wood, 1921
Many others have less than kind things to say about the musical, particularly its film treatment.
Yet it’s not always what one says, but what one does — or CREATES — that matters.
What if Eliot’s “Old Possum” started as an exercise?
Imagine T.S. Eliot waking up one day, pondering something serious, getting bored, and then re-reading Swinburne’s “To a Cat” while stroking a feline buddy.
“Hmmm…it’s not bad…maybe I dismissed that old fuddy duddy too quickly…but I can do better!” said T. S. Eliot to himself.
He crafted one poem as an exercise, testing the feeling of writing whimsically from a cat’s vantage. Then another…until suddenly a cat clowder caterwaul of jellicle ineffable feline-affability gushed forth.
And then ashamed of having written so much in response to a poet he dismissed as unworthy of too much attention, Eliot erased every record everywhere that might account for this particular writing process.
Such dialogues among poets create durable legacies. “Ghost words” resonate awaiting whatever eye or mind discovers them, interacts, and breathes new life into what others craft.
