Subscribe: by Email | in Reader

An Unusual Cat-Poem -- Wendy Cope

       
(Poem #1059) An Unusual Cat-Poem
 My cat is dead
 But I have decided not to make a big tragedy of it.
-- Wendy Cope
Indeed.

t.

[Minstrels Links]

There's no shortage of usual cat-poems on the Minstrels, no, none at all:
Poem #165, The Owl and the Pussy-Cat  -- Edward Lear
Poem #167, Pangur Ban  -- Anon. (Irish, 8th century)
Poem #258, Macavity: The Mystery Cat -- T. S. Eliot
Poem #273, How a Cat Was Annoyed and a Poet Was Booted  -- Guy Wetmore
Carryl
Poem #282, Fog  -- Carl Sandburg
Poem #401, To a Cat  -- Jorge Luis Borges
Poem #572, Mort aux Chats -- Peter Porter
Poem #574, Growltiger's Last Stand -- T. S. Eliot
Poem #575, To Mrs Reynolds' Cat -- John Keats
Poem #577, The Cat and the Moon -- William Butler Yeats
Poem #659, Poem -- William Carlos Williams
Poem #660, On a Night of Snow -- Elizabeth Coatsworth
Poem #661, Jubilate Agno -- Christopher Smart
Poem #662, Cat -- Jibanananda Das
Poem #663, A Child's Nightmare -- Robert Graves
Poem #674, Aunt Jennifer's Tigers -- Adrienne Rich
Poem #727, Milk for the Cat -- Harold Monro
Poem #955, Gus: The Theatre Cat -- T. S. Eliot
Poem #1008, Cat -- J. R. R. Tolkien
Poem #1010, Cats -- A. S. J. Tessimond

27 comments: ( or Leave a comment )

nick blackburn said...

I like a lot of the poems in WM. Equally, I am
indifferent to many, especially those involving
daffodils and suchlike. A lot are silly or a waste of
time and space. But this is the first poem I have
disliked enough to respond to. This is nothing at all
to do with the fact that I enjoy cats, it is just a
terrible poem. I would even venture that it is not a
poem at all. At least my contribution to the Oeuvre of
Suspect Poetry [Ode to a Drainpipe: You hang on the
wall, ever so tall] rhymes and scans.

Nick B

=====
Nick Blackburn
London

Joe Arthur said...

What a fraud! That cat is not unusual just because it is dead!
Having decided not to make a big tragedy of it, one hopes Wendy copes.

The poem itself is more unusual because it's title is 25% as long as the
text and contains only one word in common - possibly a weakness in the
poet's craft, zero would have been more of a challenge. The fact that I am
talking about quantity here infers that quality is not an issue!

I know I'll regret this, but, how many poems reduce the 25% ratio of title
to text? Is there a published poem whose title out quantifies it's text?
Does it matter that I counted the words and not the characters?

Joe Arthur

James Swenson said...

At the risk of being pedantic, I'd like to clarify that what's "unusual"
in the title is the poem, not the cat. The title gives the game away;
Cope is needling the authors of saccharine cat-poetry. At the same time,
she chooses the word "decided" to signal her sense of restrained grief.
I find her achievement remarkable -- she has packed a lot of internal
conflict into a little space.

For Mr. Arthur, the best I can offer is a poem by Judith Viorst from "If I
Were in Charge of the World and Other Worries": I suspect others can
improve upon its 227% ratio, if they're so inclined. [I follow his
judgment in counting the hyphenated word as two.] Mr. Blackburn will be
pleased to note that the poem rhymes and scans.

James Swenson

THOUGHTS ON GETTING OUT OF A NICE WARM BED
IN AN ICE-COLD HOUSE TO GO TO
THE BATHROOM AT THREE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING

Maybe life was better
When I used to be a wetter.

--Judith Viorst

Goopiga22 said...

hey i thought that your poem was one of the worst poems taht there are and i
dont even consider it a poem and i think that you shoudl just take it off the
internet so that you dont get anymroe critisicim from it cause when anything
die sit is a big deal especially for me cause my cat died almost 3 years ago
and that was the hardest thing that i ever had to go through and i know tha t1
day i will have to go throught it again so jsut take it off thank
you*jennifer*

ben maxwell said...

Well *I* liked it.

Tim Coles said...

Wendy cope is dead
But i have decided not to make a big tragedy of it.

Tim Coles said...

Wendy Cope is dead
But i have decided not to make a big tragedy of it.

Miss H Waterworth said...

Sad.... you haven't got a heart and without a heart you can't write poetry.

Wolf Clostermann said...

Have been very fond of this poem every since I was a wee sprog. Makes me
laugh.

Cameron Clan said...

I luv this poem(Im 10)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ittai Klein said...

There should be some kind of moderator that reviews the comments and quickly
removes those that are not fit to print.
I shall not delve into what should be the criterions; just get an
intelligent person with an open mind and good taste.
(After installing the above-recommended functionary he is invited to remove
this comment, as it becomes superfluous)

Ittai Klein said...

There should be some kind of moderator that reviews the comments and quickly
removes those that are not fit to print.
I shan’t delve into what should be the criterions; just get an intelligent
person with an open mind and good taste.
(After installing the above-recommended functionary he is invited to remove
this comment, as it becomes superfluous)

Ideas de negocios said...

Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, but I am firmly convinced of this and love to learn more about the subject. If possible, acquire knowledge, would you update your blog with more information? It is very helpful to me

Unknown said...

An unnamed source told the Daily Mail that Wood broke up with Araujo because he thought she was too fame-hungry. Wood and Araujo never lived together, fitflop.com but the Daily Mail reported that Wood was paying her living expenses when he and Araujo were dating.After breaking up with Araujo, Wood briefly dated 25-year-old jewelry-store employee Nicola Sargent. Wood has been dating theater producer Sally Humphreys, 34, since the autumn of 2011.Humphreys has fitflop arena sale been Wood's constant companion when he attends celebrity events. The couple was seen hanging out with billionaire Sir Philip Green at the Topman Design's spring/summer 2013 fashion show at the Old Sorting Office in London on June 17, 2012. Other British celebrities who were at fitflops clearance sale the event included BBC Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw, "The Voice" U.K. host Reggie Yates and model/TV personality Alexa Chung.
In 2012, there were rumors that Lovato was in talks to become a spokesmodel fitflop fleur black for Topshop, and it seems she is now angling for that job again.Lovato, Tomlinson and Calder were among the celebrities seated in the front row of Topshop's London Fashion Week runway show on Feb. 17, 2013. Also in the front row were starlets Kate Bosworth, Pixie Geldof and Daisy Lowe. Bosworth was also at the Topshop opening in Los Angeles.Pop singer Kelly Clarkson released her Christmas album "Wrapped in Red" on fitflops sale Tuesday. Clarkson puts out some original material and takes on holiday classics but she also surprisingly covers an Imogen Heap track.Most artists release their Christmas albums in the October to make sure people are aware of them when the winter season starts to creep in mens fitflops sale so it is not an usual practice. Clarkson threw her hat into the holiday album ring this year with "Wrapped in Red." The original "American Idol" has released a cheery original entitled "Underneath the Tree" and a cover of "White Christmas." Now Clarkson's album is fitflops out in full and so is her unexpected Imogen Heap cover.
There were plenty of web designers and merchant account services. But also, in the continued growth of video as a marketing tool, I noticed several video production companies that I hadn’t seen at other fitflop events, including multi-award-winning Branding Shorts and AndNow Media, and SLP Video & Multimedia,“Entrepreneurs face challenges that only other entrepreneurs get, and can solve,” I was told. The Entrepreneurs Organization, a nonprofit organization, stated that their strong member-base group is not just a loose networking group. fitflops on sale “It provides entrepreneurs with ongoing education-based seminars, and a brain-trust of peers that actually help each other overcome short and long-term challenges so that they can succeed.”From everyone I spoke to,

Unknown said...

COACH, LVMH TIE-UP SEEN UNLIKELY: Financial sources were extremely skeptical of a report from primeretailer.com claiming that LVMH Mo?t Hennessy Louis Vuitton had “shown interest” in Coach Inc.The Bernard Arnault-led LVMH is coach outlets acquisitive and well funded enough to be a regular feature in the M&A rumor mill and many of the mega deals that are whispered about never come to fruition. Even so, the hint of a deal for Coach was enough to send the company’s stock up 3.5 percent to $34.78 by 1:15 p.m. on coach outlet store online Wall Street, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded 1.1 percent, or 189.83 points, to 17,722.98 after Wednesday’s rout.
On Thursday the exhibit will travel to Beijing, where Krakoff will be joined by Gwyneth Paltrow, the face of the company’s 70th anniversary ad campaign in Asia. Paltrow has asked her friend Mario Batali to www.coachoutlet.com/store design the menu for a private dinner. She will also perform three songs. Coach is celebrating its past with the Coach Vintage project, a collection of original bags from the Seventies and Eighties.Each piece, sourced across the U.S. and restored by Coach artisans, is billed as unique.
There was also a fortune-teller, arcade games coach purses and vodka-spiked snow cones.This story first appeared in the June 22, 2012 issue of WWD. Subscribe Today.A well-dressed crowd of civic-minded partygoers roamed the temporary midway while a DJ supplied a very loud soundtrack. Dianna Agron, Mamie Gummer and Benjamin Walker chatted in a corner huddle, sampling the pretzel bites being passed around coach outlet coupons by waiters wearing straw boaters, suspenders and fake moustaches. A small contingent of “Saturday Night Live” cast members, including Bobby Moynihan and Abby Elliott,

Unknown said...

He declined to disclose figures, but said the firm continues to post “very high double-digit growth,” with men’s footwear one of the fastest christian louboutin store growing categories, only three years after Louboutin introduced his first men’s only shop and a full men’s product range.The brand is also accentuating its hyper-luxurious positioning, with beauty products priced even higher than elite brands christian louboutin sale such as Tom Ford and Chanel, and via bespoke retail installations, such as a main-floor concession christian louboutin sale unit at the Printemps flagship here on the Boulevard Haussmann that will showcase women’s shoes and christian louboutin leather goods with beauty products in the middle. Louboutin described the shop, due to open on Aug. 25, as “a peninsula of beauty.”
“Fantastic craziness with a lot of elegance” is how christian louboutin shoes Azzedine Ala?a put it, adding, “I admire her for that.”Vanessa Bruno, Jean Paul Gaultier, Maxime Simoens, louboutin outlet Roland Mouret and Christian Louboutin were also among the guests.So, does the exhibit portend Monsieur Lacroix’s christian louboutin return to haute couture? “Quelle horreur! Not at all!” exclaimed the master tailor. “But it was christian louboutin outlet an enlightening experience.”“There would be no story without shoe designers, without Christian Louboutin, without Manolo [Blahnik], red sole shoes Pierre Hardy,” first time director Julie Benasra said Wednesday at the premiere of her new documentary christian louboutin 2016 “God Save My Shoes,” which explores women’s love affair with the accessory. “But this film louboutin shoes is about women. It’s a portrait of the modern woman through her love of shoes.”
Red Bottom Shoes

Anonymous said...

uwu

Post a Comment