Today I found an excellent little book by one W.S.Scott, published in 1946. It has the slightly curious title a Clowder of Cats. A clowder is one of a number of names for a group of cats, another being a "glaring."
As a cat-lover of course I snapped it up. So far I have had only limited opportunity to examine the book (being currently busy reading Max Beerbohm's Seven Men and Two Others for about the fifth time).
There are several pieces lamenting the passing of beloved feline pets; the following example, apart from a reference to a paw, could well apply to other circumstances and indeed to other relationships:
To a Siamese Cat
"I shall walk in the sun alone
Whose golden light you loved:
I shall sleep alone
And, stirring, touch an empty place:
I shall write uninterrupted
(Would that your gentle paw
Could stay my moving pen once again!)
I shall see beauty
But none to match your living grace:
I shall hear music:
But not so sweet as the droning song
With which you loved me.
I shall fill my days
But I shall not, cannot forget:
Sleep soft dear friend
For while I live, you shall not die."
Michael Joseph
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I am no poetry critic, but must say that I find the final line if not entirely original, incredibly moving.
Until the next time
2 comments:
beautiful, I`m sure it`s a favourite at some human funerals.If not it ought to be.
Surely we are all poetry critics at some level. One can even admire the wordsmithery of some rappers. (though not the ffefffin thump thump thump in the background)
not to mention the rocknroll poets of ones youth.
I appreciate that you may be a more scholarly critic than some and I make allowances for this by delving into some of the stuff you mention. "seven men & 2 others" 5 times...can you explain this need for repetitive reading? `0
Well I am a romantic, and sentimental both about love and about cats; it is a touching poem, though I concede many might find it a little mawkish.
"Seven Men and Two Others"? Five times? That's nothing: I have read Waugh's "Put out more Flags" at least 40 times.
"Seven Men" is great - Hard to choose a favourite, but for me it would just be "Enoch Soames" who beats Kate's favourite "A.V.Laider" by a very short nose.
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