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The Poetry of Cats
Poetry, Pets, Animals, Prose
- GenresPoetry
96 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1974
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 2, 2017
Last year, I was intrigued to unearth a Canadian-authored and illustrated anthology called “In Praise Of Cats”. It was published by Dorothy Foster & Alan Daniels in 1974, the same as “The Poetry Of Cats” by Samuel Carr. However it is rare and out-of-print and I can only guess the prevalence of English products might be the reason why the indisputably inferior one is available. It holds no candle to the Canadian suite. At gift size of 96 pages, versus Canada's tall 130-page hardcover, it echoes some of the same old poems, which weren't necessarily good ones. It maybe contributed a few different ones. Goodness knows it had reprint opportunities until 1986 for gathering more content.
I was dissatisfied with an unpleasant tone prevailing in Dorothy's anthology, ending on an undesirable chapter of eulogies. However at least it had the abundance of poetry to warrant chapters, drawing tiny to loquacious works from an impressive span of eras. If there was a cat poem, Dorothy found out about it. Samuel expounded too much on the lack of feline poetry, whereas Dorothy got to work publishing what there was. Her introduction, my favourite element, is a gem: a surprisingly educational, fascinating treatise about cats with unique angles; like a witchcraft superstition of danger to newborns.
Samuel found a few loyal poems but as several reviewers pointed out, he scraped his sparse barrel for verses about cats, which weren't necessarily by authors who loved them. You get inadequate, caricature clichés or emotionally-distant observations, in some cases. I agree that cat-lovers want prose reflective of loving cats. Those unsure why they weren't enthralled might feel this was the reason. The many ink and colour drawings are gorgeous. The most beautiful is the kitten on the cover, who resembles my dear Conan, as a kitten.
I was dissatisfied with an unpleasant tone prevailing in Dorothy's anthology, ending on an undesirable chapter of eulogies. However at least it had the abundance of poetry to warrant chapters, drawing tiny to loquacious works from an impressive span of eras. If there was a cat poem, Dorothy found out about it. Samuel expounded too much on the lack of feline poetry, whereas Dorothy got to work publishing what there was. Her introduction, my favourite element, is a gem: a surprisingly educational, fascinating treatise about cats with unique angles; like a witchcraft superstition of danger to newborns.
Samuel found a few loyal poems but as several reviewers pointed out, he scraped his sparse barrel for verses about cats, which weren't necessarily by authors who loved them. You get inadequate, caricature clichés or emotionally-distant observations, in some cases. I agree that cat-lovers want prose reflective of loving cats. Those unsure why they weren't enthralled might feel this was the reason. The many ink and colour drawings are gorgeous. The most beautiful is the kitten on the cover, who resembles my dear Conan, as a kitten.
May 17, 2013
Beautifully designed, lovely illustrations, but none of the poems spoke to me at all, and I'm a cat-lover of the first degree. Surely there are other poems about cats that are more relevant. If not, then somebody hurry and write some!
April 2, 2017
"From owlish moons of bekittenings..."
This book is older than I am - my edition was published in 1986 and, according to the copyright page, has added material compared to the 1974 edition. Poetry is by nature subjective and any anthology will have hits and misses for individual readers. In this case, the misses were largely made up of poems written by people who do not actually like cats. This book is blatantly targeted at cat lovers so the inclusion of negative material seems a little off purpose. Also a shame was the sheer amount of poems about the death of a cat - not that these weren't touching, but I didn't buy this to cry over. Saying that, there are some decent inclusions here and the artwork is often just as interesting as the poetry itself.
Poems I liked:
The Song of the Jellicles - T.S. Elliot (everyone knows this one!)
Five Eyes - Walter de la Mare
Cats - Eleanor Farjeon (I've known this since I was a little girl. I still love it.)
Milk for the Cat - Harold Monro
The Kitten and Falling Leaves - William Wordsworth
The Cat - Richard Church <3
Cats - A. S. J. Tessimond (could've done without "shot and skinned" but still too beautiful not to include.)
To a Cat - A. C. Swinburne
The Retired Cat - William Cowper
Montaigne's Cat - Izaak Walton (more prose than poetry but nevertheless most apt.)
On a Cat, Ageing - Alexander Gray
The Scribe's Cat - Anonymous (Another one I knew: I and Pangur Ban, my cat - Tis a like task we are at - Hunting mice is his delight - Hunting words I sit all night.)
And last but not least Cats - Francis Scarfe, which I shall finish with an excerpt of:
"Those who love cats which do not even purr,
Or which are thin and tired and very old,
Bend down to them in the street and stroke their fur
And rub their ears and smooth their breast, and hold
Their paws, and gaze into their eyes of gold."
Wasn't that beautiful? Oh, I do love cats.
This book is older than I am - my edition was published in 1986 and, according to the copyright page, has added material compared to the 1974 edition. Poetry is by nature subjective and any anthology will have hits and misses for individual readers. In this case, the misses were largely made up of poems written by people who do not actually like cats. This book is blatantly targeted at cat lovers so the inclusion of negative material seems a little off purpose. Also a shame was the sheer amount of poems about the death of a cat - not that these weren't touching, but I didn't buy this to cry over. Saying that, there are some decent inclusions here and the artwork is often just as interesting as the poetry itself.
Poems I liked:
The Song of the Jellicles - T.S. Elliot (everyone knows this one!)
Five Eyes - Walter de la Mare
Cats - Eleanor Farjeon (I've known this since I was a little girl. I still love it.)
Milk for the Cat - Harold Monro
The Kitten and Falling Leaves - William Wordsworth
The Cat - Richard Church <3
Cats - A. S. J. Tessimond (could've done without "shot and skinned" but still too beautiful not to include.)
To a Cat - A. C. Swinburne
The Retired Cat - William Cowper
Montaigne's Cat - Izaak Walton (more prose than poetry but nevertheless most apt.)
On a Cat, Ageing - Alexander Gray
The Scribe's Cat - Anonymous (Another one I knew: I and Pangur Ban, my cat - Tis a like task we are at - Hunting mice is his delight - Hunting words I sit all night.)
And last but not least Cats - Francis Scarfe, which I shall finish with an excerpt of:
"Those who love cats which do not even purr,
Or which are thin and tired and very old,
Bend down to them in the street and stroke their fur
And rub their ears and smooth their breast, and hold
Their paws, and gaze into their eyes of gold."
Wasn't that beautiful? Oh, I do love cats.
January 22, 2019
Too many of these poems rhyme ‘cat’ with ‘mat’ or ‘fat’. For shame, poets. I love poetry and I love cats, but I only enjoyed maybe four of these. Bah.
September 4, 2013
The Poetry of Cats is a collection of poems all about cats from a range of different poets. I got this book as a gift from my cousin because of my love for cats. The illustrations were a lovely touch to the poems, but I didn't enjoy the poems as much as I thought I would. I didn't have high expectations to start with, but I am still a little disappointed that it wasn't what I thought it would be. Surely there are more poems out there that are more relevant to cats and more entertaining to read.
Many of the poetry in this book are featured from poets that I have heard of before, whether in discussion or just in passing and were excited to read their work, but few poems in this book did it for me. There were only two that I actually enjoyed, ‘Five Eyes’ from Walter De La Mare, and‘Milk For the Cat’ by Harold Monro.
Many of the poetry in this book are featured from poets that I have heard of before, whether in discussion or just in passing and were excited to read their work, but few poems in this book did it for me. There were only two that I actually enjoyed, ‘Five Eyes’ from Walter De La Mare, and‘Milk For the Cat’ by Harold Monro.
September 28, 2016
There were some really good poems within this collection. I'm not a poetry fan but the subject matter made it of interest.
June 17, 2015
I once took a poetry class in college. Often when it was time to turn in a set of poems, I was scrambling for inspiration and sort of write random prose about whatever happened to be around me. I wrote a poem like this about my cat...that's kind of what this book is like. As if, a bunch of poets were struggling to finish a poetry assignment and thought, "well, I guess I could write about my cat...".
Some of the poems were actually quite good, so I am exaggerating a bit, but really, it's a book of poems about cats so I don't know what more to really say about it here. If you like cats and poetry, you'll probably like this book. I wouldn't recommend it if you only like one of those things. And I definitely wouldn't recommend it if you like neither of those things.
Some of the poems were actually quite good, so I am exaggerating a bit, but really, it's a book of poems about cats so I don't know what more to really say about it here. If you like cats and poetry, you'll probably like this book. I wouldn't recommend it if you only like one of those things. And I definitely wouldn't recommend it if you like neither of those things.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews