T.S. Eliot's "The Naming of Cats"

The Daily Poem

Goldberry Studios

Education For Kids, Arts, Kids & Family

4.6 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Today’s poem is by Thomas Stearns Eliot OM (26 September 1888 – 4 January 1965), a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.[1] Considered one of the 20th century's major poets, he is a central figure in English-language Modernist poetry. Through his trials in language, writing style, and verse structure, he reinvigorated English poetry. He also dismantled outdated beliefs and established new ones through a collection of critical essays.[2]

Eliot first attracted widespread attention for his poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" from 1914 to 1915, which, at the time of its publication, was considered outlandish.[5] It was followed by The Waste Land (1922), "The Hollow Men" (1925), "Ash Wednesday" (1930), and Four Quartets (1943).[6] He was also known for seven plays, particularly Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and The Cocktail Party (1949). He was awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry".[7][8]

—Bio via Wikipedia

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios.
0:04.6	I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Monday, September 11, 2023.
0:10.5	Today's poem is by T.S. Eliot, and it's called The Naming of Cats.
0:18.9	If you're not familiar with this poem, you may be surprised that it's by T.S. Eliot.
0:25.9	If you are, you know what you're in store for already.
0:29.5	I'll read it once, offer a few comments, and then read it one more time. The naming of cats.
0:40.3	The naming of cats is a difficult matter.
0:44.3	It isn't just one of your holiday games.
0:47.3	You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter.
0:50.3	When I tell you, a cat must have three different names.
0:56.0	First of all, there's the name that the family use daily, such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo, or James,
1:03.4	such as Victor or Jonathan, George, or Bill Bailey, all of them sensible everyday names.
1:10.3	There are fancier names, if you think they sound sweeter,
1:14.0	some for the gentlemen, some for the dames, such as Plato, Admetus,
1:18.5	Electra, Demeter, but all of them sensible, everyday names.
1:24.3	But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular, a name that's peculiar and more dignified,
1:31.3	else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular, or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
1:38.3	Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum, such as munkastrap, quaxo, or coricopat, such as bambalorina or else jellyorum,
1:49.0	names that never belonged to more than one cat.
1:53.0	But above and beyond, there's still one name left over, and that is the name that you never will guess.
2:08.8	The name that no human research can discover, but the cat himself knows and will never confess.
2:16.5	When you notice a cat in profound meditation, the reason I tell you is always the same.
	...

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