 | |
| Poems by J.R.R. Tolkien | |
| Cat | |
|---|---|
| Poem Information | |
| Written | likely 1956 |
| Revised | before 1962 |
| Published | The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, The Poetical Cat, The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien |
| Subject(s) | Cats, Lions, Pards |
Cat is a poem written by Sam Gamgee and recorded in the Red Book of Westmarch, although at most he only touched up an older piece. Hobbits appear to have been fond of comic bestiary lore, of which this is an example.[1]
The poem contains two stanzas composed of alternating longer and shorter lines. It relies on assonance, the refrain of vowel sounds, to create internal rhyming.
Tolkien wrote the poem for his granddaughter in 1956.[2] He apparently made use in the poem of a device found in medieval bestiaries (several such manuscripts are kept by the Bodleian Library at Oxford): the pairing of lions and pards.[3]
It was published as the twelfth poem in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962).[4] The poem has also been published separately in the anthology The Poetical Cat (1995).
Poem excerpt
The fat cat on the mat
may seem to dream
of nice mice that suffice
for him, or cream;
but he free, maybe,
See also
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, "Preface"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond (eds), The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, "Introduction"
- ↑ "Pard" at The Medieval Bestiary (accessed 12 March 2011)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, "Cat"