About THE Poets: T S Eliot

T. S. Eliot is the second poet to be featured in this series who won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Throughout my journey of discovering his poems, the most obvious thing I noticed was that he was a cat-lover and I almost shouted when I saw the below poem because I had forgotten that his poem was a part of my high-school English syllabus and not just that, it was a poem I had really enjoyed even though I’m not an animal lover (sorry, not sorry):

Macavity’s a Mystery Cat: he’s called the Hidden Paw—
For he’s the master criminal who can defy the Law.
He’s the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad’s despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime—Macavity’s not there!

Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity,
He’s broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
And when you reach the scene of crime—Macavity’s not there!
You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air—
But I tell you once and once again, Macavity’s not there!

Macavity’s a ginger cat, he’s very tall and thin;
You would know him if you saw him, for his eyes are sunken in.
His brow is deeply lined with thought, his head is highly domed;
His coat is dusty from neglect, his whiskers are uncombed.
He sways his head from side to side, with movements like a snake;
And when you think he’s half asleep, he’s always wide awake.

Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity,
For he’s a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity.
You may meet him in a by-street, you may see him in the square—
But when a crime’s discovered, then Macavity’s not there!

He’s outwardly respectable. (They say he cheats at cards.)
And his footprints are not found in any file of Scotland Yard’s
And when the larder’s looted, or the jewel-case is rifled,
Or when the milk is missing, or another Peke’s been stifled,
Or the greenhouse glass is broken, and the trellis past repair
Ay, there’s the wonder of the thing! Macavity’s not there!

And when the Foreign Office find a Treaty’s gone astray,
Or the Admiralty lose some plans and drawings by the way,
There may be a scrap of paper in the hall or on the stair—
But it’s useless to investigate—Macavity’s not there!
And when the loss has been disclosed, the Secret Service say:
It must have been Macavity!’—but he’s a mile away.
You’ll be sure to find him resting, or a-licking of his thumb;
Or engaged in doing complicated long division sums.

Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity,
There never was a Cat of such deceitfulness and suavity.
He always has an alibi, and one or two to spare:
At whatever time the deed took place—MACAVITY WASN’T THERE !
And they say that all the Cats whose wicked deeds are widely known
(I might mention Mungojerrie, I might mention Griddlebone)
Are nothing more than agents for the Cat who all the time
Just controls their operations: the Napoleon of Crime! –T. S. Eliot

As part of trivia, here’s an interesting piece of information -he was the first person to use the word ‘bullshit’! Okay, so for this article, I tried and failed to find poems that were short and could be posted here. T. S. Eliot was the kind of poet who wrote extremely long poems (and no, I’m definitely not complaining). Apparently, he wanted each of his poems to be an event and wrote only like two or three poems each year since his writing was largely focused on other areas of literature. His personal life was tumultuous too which is something of a common theme I find in most writer’s biography (especially concerning love and marriage which is sort of scary) and of course, I’m not going to discuss it here. Even though I had come across his poem in high-school – a time when I began appreciating the power of the English language and loving it a little more than I already did – what made me write about him is the fact that Troian Bellisario (the actress who played my favorite character ‘Spencer Hastings’ in the series ‘Pretty little liars’) posted an excerpt from his famous poem ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ on her Instagram page which immediately moved me in such a way that it was decided that he would be added to the list of poets on this series. Here’s what she posted:

Beautiful, isn’t it?

Rate this post!

Like the Facebook page of Soul-ed Out and follow @so.by.ss on Instagram!