Monday 27 September 2010

T S Eliot


This morning I came across the beautifully crafted nonsense poem about Macavity, the Mystery Cat, over at Writer Biographies. Click this link if you’d like to read it. The poem is by T S Eliot and from his Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.  I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t know that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famous musical hit, Cats, was based on this poetry collection.  I’m not familiar with either because I haven’t read the poems or seen the show.

When I was at college, many moons ago, I did study some TSE and couldn’t make a lot of sense of The Waste Land or The Hollow Men, just remember the most famous lines, ie

April is the cruellest month – first line of The Waste Land (also happens to be the month I was born), and the ending of The Hollow Men:

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang, but a whimper.

Anyway I find I’m really taken with Macavity, which was written before World War II and the very cynical and dour works of the poet that came after that.  I’ll get myself a copy of Practical Cats, and perhaps even get to see the musical.

9 comments:

reyapot said...

hi.. interesting post.. i'll check the poem..

i hope u can visit my blog too...

Unknown said...

Hope you like the poem, reyapot. I usually visit people who leave comments and sometimes leave one myself.

Susan said...

Thanks for the link :) My favorite Eliot line is "in the room the women come and go, talking of Michelango"

Unknown said...

You're welcome, Susan. And thanks for this lovely quote.

Mel_Cole said...

My husband loves T.S. eliot's poems. We saw Weber's "cats" the musical. It was ok, and I like the "Memory" song sung by the glamourous cat. BTW, I got and award for you here: http://www.lovehomegrowgarden.info/2010/09/versatile-blogger-award.html Take your time.

Unknown said...

Thanks so much for the award, Mel. I'll get to it after I'm back from my holiday in the second week of October.

Unknown said...

I must confess that I have not read that much of T.S. Eliot's poems. But, I have read Practical Cats in both in English and in Swedish by translation.

I have been working on a little study of literature with any kind of cat in it. And that's how I came to Macavity.

I should tell my cat Sara to do something about cat poetry on her blog!

Best wishes,
Anna

Unknown said...

Thanks for keeping on visiting me Anna, and for your comment. I'll have to keep checking for Sara's cat poetry now.

Patricia Rockwell said...

Love Elliott's practical cats and the musical that was derived from them. Such diversity of styles and content.

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