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In 1954, English composer Alan Rawsthorne set six of the poems in a work for speaker and orchestra entitled Practical Cats, which was recorded soon afterwards, with the actor Robert Donat as the speaker. At about the same time another English composer, Humphrey Searle, composed another narrated piece based on the poems, using flute, piccolo, cello and guitar. This work, Two Practical Cats, consists of settings of the poems about Macavity and Growltiger.
This little book, consists of 15 poems with the last one, "Cat Morgan Introduces Himself", added in 1952. The poems are short, rhythmical and rhymed. Eliot intended them for young children. They are delightful poetry in their own right with varied use of language and phrasing and poetic devices. Of) The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles (Together with Some Account of the Participation of the Pugs and the Poms and the Intervention of the Great Rumpus Cat)" public Wi-Fi - this extends to the majority of our public spaces including the Reading Rooms, as well as our study desks and galleries at St Pancras (you won't require a login)Every cat has "THREE DIFFERENT NAMES" we are told in the first poem: its given name, its particular name, and the name the cat keeps to itself. Which of the three names does Eliot use in the poems which follow? The poems tells the stories of cats with names such as Jennyanndots, the old Gumbie cat, the ill-fated Growltiger and his lady Griddlebone, and the obstinate Rum Tum Tugger. Eliot says of Rum Tum Tugger An embroidery made by a young T. S. Eliot hinted at things to come. The embroidery, made in 1894, shows a ribbon-collared cat ready to pounce on a ball of wool. It’s believed Eliot first put pen to paper with his cats in a 1931 letter to his young godson, Tom Faber, who had written to Eliot about his cat. ‘I am glad you have a Cat’ Eliot wrote, ‘but I do not believe it is So remarkable a cat as My cat. My Cat is a Lilliecat Hubvsouly… ITS NAME IS JELLYLORUM’. There followed further letters to Eliot’s godson introducing the Pollicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats, and the Practical Cat who can be seen trying out country life pursuits with Eliot in the drawings illustrating the letter. Between 1936 and 1938, poems were written and sent to friends and their children for comment, before their eventual inclusion in Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. T. S. Eliot and the Practical Cat ‘go in for COUNTRY LIFE’ in a letter to Tom Faber, 7 May 1931
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939) is a collection of whimsical light poems by T. S. Eliot about feline psychology and sociology, published by Faber and Faber. It serves as the basis for Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1981 musical Cats. I’m not sure the CGI is entirely convincing, as these cat-human hybrids seem much more of the latter than the former (the meowing is definitely unconvincing; Dame Judi Dench throwing a ham bone made me guffaw out loud). Our Family Station in St Pancras is open from 10.00-12.00 every Friday and we're continuing to welcome schools, as well as families and adult learners to our courses and access events. All our in-person and livestreamed events are going ahead. Other services
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T.S. Eliot is known for masterworks of poetry like The Waste Land, but somehow also the author of this delightful collection of cat poems. The full book consists of 15 very short poems, most of which describe a distinct personality of cat. There's the cat who can never be pleased, for example, the thieving cat, the old wise cat. Each cat has a creative name which mirrors their personality. Pollicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats didn’t make the final book (it can be found in Volume 1 of The Complete Poems of T. S. Eliot) but Eliot followed it up with further poems written and sent on periodically to the Tandy and Faber families, Bonamy Dobree, and John Hayward. In December 1937 five of the Practical Cats were broadcast by the BBC on Christmas Day, with the poems read by broadcaster and scientist Geoffrey Tandy. The broadcast proved a great success with repeat broadcasts and two new sets of readings the following year, establishing an audience eager to see the poems in print. T. S. Eliot’s manuscript copy of ‘The Song of the Jellicles’
In the film Logan's Run, Logan and Jessica meet an old man in the ruins of the United States Senate Chamber during their search for Sanctuary. The Old Man has many cats and refers to the poem "The Naming of Cats", explaining that each cat has three names: one common, one fancy and one that only the cat knows. Later the Old Man refers to one cat in particular, "Gus", short for "Asparagus", and goes on to recite parts of "Macavity: the Mystery Cat". A algunos les causó extrañeza que Eliot, censurado por algunos poemas, escribiese algo para niños, pero , claro, un gato tiene más de un nombre. De hecho tiene tres: el que le dan y todos conocen, después uno peculiar que le da orgullo, y luego está aquel, el secreto, que solamente éste conoce... For real, this was such a great collection! Yes, sometimes the poems was a bit odd. But brilliant at the same time! So, I'm really more of a dog guy, and I don't know if that's the reason or if it was the horribly ridiculous musical or what, but despite considering T.S. Eliot as one of my favorite poets during my college days and despite owning a copy of this book for at least fifteen years, I'd never read these poems until today.Eliot received many poetical responses to Practical Cats, including one from a Mrs Skinker who wrote him a letter in rhyme. Eliot, naturally, replied with his own rhyming letter:
In 1925 T.S. Eliot became co-director of Faber & Faber, who remain his publishers to this day. Throughout the 1930s he composed the now famous poems about Macavity, Old Deuteronomy, Mr Mistoffelees and many other cats, under the name of ‘Old Possum’. In 1981 Eliot’s poems were set to music by Andrew Lloyd Webber as Cats which went on to become the longest-running Broadway musical in history.
I am more and more doubtful of my ability to write a successful book of this kind, and I had rather find out early that I can’t do it, than waste a lot of time for nothing. And this sort of thing is flat if it is flat, than serious verse. Nobody wants to make a fool of himself when he might be better employed.’ Eliot was worried about the poems’ reception, wanting them to be a success in their own right, and wrote to Geoffrey Faber in July 1939, ‘I was so anxious that the Cats should flourish, if at all, on their own merits, and not as a TSE curio, that I would have asked that it be published anonymously had I thought that fair to the publishers; it is intended for a NEW public, but I am afraid cannot dispense with the old one.’ Eliot couldn’t have foreseen the immense success of Cats the musical, but he did see Practical Cats as crucial to his own financial prospects. A month before publication, in September 1939, he confided to John Hayward, ‘My financial future… seems to depend on CATS’. A stunning new edition of T. S. Eliot’s beloved cat poems Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, containing beautiful original colour illustrations by Axel Scheffler. I'm curious what motivated Eliot to write these funny and clever little ditties for kitties--the writer feels more like Edward Lear than the elusive, erudite author of "The Hollow Men" and "Journey of the Magi"--but there's a perfect sort of precision to the meter and language, even if the subject is playful and quaint to the point of silliness. Or maybe that's just the loutish dog lover in me coming out; as Eliot writes, "The usual Dog about the Town / Is much inclined to play the clown, / And far from showing too much pride / Is frequently undignified."
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