[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

From: nick blackburn <nick_blackburn@>

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

From: Joe Arthur <joseph@>

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

From: James Swenson <swenson@>


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

From: Goopiga22@

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*

From: "ben maxwell" <benmaxwell@>

Well *I* liked it.

From: "Tim Coles" <Tim@>

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

From: "Tim Coles" <tim@>

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

From: "Michaela Campbell" <michaela37@>

crap

From: "Miss H Waterworth" <heatherandandyl@>

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

From: Wolf Clostermann <wolf@>

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