The Song of the Jellicles

“The Song of the Jellicles” is a children’s poem from T. S. Eliot’s (1888-1965) Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939). Though Eliot was a modernist poet who mainly wrote mature poetry, he also wrote a surprising number of children’s poems. Most of these were for his grandchildren.

In “The Song of the Jellicles,” Eliot creates a fantastical world of cats who sing, dance, and act like humans. Though the poem itself is whimsical, “The Song of the Jellicles” and the book it is part of have some deeper themes of social commentary relevant to Eliot’s time period.

Though most remembered as a modernist poet, Eliot’s children’s poetry has a lasting legacy. The world he created in Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats was later adapted into the popular Broadway musical Cats (1981). Despite this, scholars don’t often focus on Eliot’s children’s poetry. Because of this, there is little academic writing about the poems.

Poet Biography

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri. Eliot was born to a well-off Unitarian family. Suffering from a hernia, the young Eliot spent most of his time reading by himself. He became obsessed with books at an early age, shaping his later career. Eliot began to write poetry when he was 14 years old and began publishing at the age of 17.

In 1906, Eliot enrolled at Harvard University. His education continued there in spurts over the next eight years as he moved between the United States and Europe, but he was not a fan of the college atmosphere. Instead, Eliot preferred the city where he could socialize with professional writers and experience the ebb and flow of the adult world. He spent much time in London, where he met Ezra Pound, a famous modernist writer who became one of Eliot’s staunchest advocates and who helped Eliot become a famous writer.

After finishing school, Eliot married Vivienne Haigh-Wood, though their unhappy marriage only lasted until 1933.

For many years, Eliot bounced between various jobs, but he found his long-term profession at the publishing firm Faber and Gwyer in 1925 where he worked as a literary editor for the rest of his life. Beyond his poetry and literary criticism, Eliot’s other lasting legacy is as a publisher responsible for publishing many famous authors during the middle of the 20th century.

During his time at Faber and Gwyer, Eliot converted to Anglicanism and became a British citizen. As he aged, this newfound religious zeal impacted his poetry, as many of his poems incorporated religious imagery and themes.

Eliot’s literary career didn’t take off until 1917 when he published the classic Prufrock and Other Observations. This volume contained his poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” which critics consider a masterpiece of modernist poetry.

Eliot’s published his most famous poem, “The Waste Land”, in 1922, right after the conclusion of World War I. He published other substantial works in the following years: “The Hollow Men” in 1925, “Ash-Wednesday” in 1927, and Four Quartets between 1936 and 1942.

Shortly before his death, Eliot married 30-year-old Esme Valerie Fletcher. Eliot died in 1965. He is remembered as a pioneer of modernist poetry and a titanic voice in the history of 20th century verse.

Poem Text

Eliot, T. S. “The Song of the Jellicles.” Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, 1939. Poets.org.

Summary

“The Song of the Jellicles” introduces readers to Jellicle Cats. The poem opens with a description of these cats’ habits, stressing that they “come out at night” (Line 1) when the moon shines as they head to the “Jellicle Ball” (Line 4). The first stanza reads like an advertisement speaking directly to the cats, calling them to the ball. The stanza is indented and italicized to distinguish it from the rest of the stanzas. It acts as a prologue.

The second stanza describes the cats’ looks and habits. They are “black and white / … [and] rather small” (Lines 5-6), they are “merry and bright” (Line 7), and their cries are pleasant to the ear (Line 8). The stanza ends with another reference to the moon, saying the Jellicle Cats like to wait for “the Jellicle Moon to rise” (Line 12).

The next stanza describes the Jellicle Cats’ growth, saying they “develop slowly / … [and] are not too big” (Lines 13-14). The speaker then says the cats “know how to dance a gavotte and a jig” (Line 16)—two European folk dances that developed between the Renaissance era and Eliot’s time. The speaker says the cats wait until the moon rises by washing themselves and sleeping—typical feline behaviors. They “wash behind their ears, / … [and] dry between their toes” (Lines 19-20).

In the fourth stanza, the description of the cats continues. They jump and have “moonlit eyes” (Line 24), but again, the speaker focuses on their relationship to the moon. The cats are “quiet enough” in the morning and afternoon hours (Lines 25-26) because they reserve their “terpsichorean” (dancing) powers for the moon (Lines 27-28).

The final stanza repeats some of the earlier descriptions of the cats and once again mentions how the cats like to dance under the moonlight. The poem ends by saying the cats sleep under the light of the sun and “[save] themselves to be right / For the Jellicle Moon and the Jellicle Ball” (Lines 35-36).