Cats
Cats no less liquid than their shadows
Offer no angles to the wind.
They slip, diminished, neat through loopholes
Less than themselves; will not be pinned
To rules or routes for journeys; counter
Attack with non-resistance; twist
Enticing through the curving fingers
And leave an angered empty fist.
They wait obsequious as darkness
Quick to retire, quick to return;
Admit no aim or ethics; flatter
With reservations; will not learn
To answer to their names; are seldom
Truly owned till shot or skinned.
Cats no less liquid than their shadows
Offer no angles to the wind.
Commentary
[Leoni’s comments]
I learnt this poem when I was a child for my elocution class. You should really read it aloud as the words slither and twist just like a cat in motion. It’s one of the best descriptive poems about cats that I’ve ever read.
[Gerry’s comments]
The couplet with which this poem opens and closes contains a pair of images beautifully contrived to convey the morally, emotionally and physically elusive feline nature. The lines that fall between the opening and closing are slightly more down-to-earth but have two great virtues: firstly they scan and rhyme very pleasingly; secondly they consist of a list of terse descriptive statements of such evident or near-as-dammit truth that you read each one off with growing admiration for the poet’s powers of observation and expression.
This is my favourite cat poem because, apart from being beautifully written, it is unsentimental and relatively free of the anthropomorphic tendency, just full of shrewd respect for an animal that appears incapable of losing its dignity and right to self determination in any relationship with a human even, perhaps especially, with a person claiming to be its ‘owner’.
I’m afraid I know nothing of A.S.J. Tessimond. I came across another of his or her cat poems that wasn’t as good but for me this one stands alone above all others on the theme.
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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
Harold Adler · 30 March 2002
The BBC gives biographical information about the poet at
[broken link] http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/poetry/a_s_j_tessimond.shtml
accessed ý30ý ýMarchý ý2002
A S J Tessimond (1902 - 1962)
POEMS
Cats No Less Liquid Than Their Shadows
BIOGRAPHY
Arthur Seymour John Tessimond was born in Birkenhead. He was an only child. He was educated at Charterhouse but ran away to London at the age of 16, only to return home two weeks later. He went to Liverpool University and then moved to London where he worked in bookshops and then as an advertising copywriter. He went into hiding during World War II, as he considered he would not be much good as a soldier. As it happened, he later discovered he was unfit to fight anyway. He was an eccentric with depressive tendencies whose inheritance went either on night-life or on psychoanalysts. He was given electric shock treatment and this may have contributed to the brain haemorrhage that later killed him. His work shows great clarity and often humour. He wrote about the ordinary and about city stereotypes. Some of his poems are conversation-poems and these often capture his tendency towards melancholy. Three volumes of his poems were published during his lifetime.
Pamela Spence · 15 October 2003
At last I have come across the poem I had to learn for a poetry competition when I was about nine years old. The first two lines have haunted me for years as I couldn’t remember the rest. Having cats of my own now, I re-read with entirely different emphasis on words!
Pamela