Richard Vallance
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Vallance Review 42, February 2005
"My Cat Jeoffry" by Christopher Smart (1722-1771)
Dedicated to Sara's cat, Harley, Richard's cats,
Argentée [1] (Maine Coon), Daisy and Squeak
and Louis-Dominique's cats, Marjot and Renoir
INTRODUCTION
This month's Vallance Review marks a radical departure from our norm of reviewing sonnets. For the first time since the inception of this column in September 2001, at the request of the editor of Poetry Life & Times, we will be reviewing one of the earliest examples of blank verse poetry in English, Christopher Smart's poem segment, "My Cat Jeoffry', from his famous "Jubilate Agno" [4]. As it so happens, Sara Russell and I both adore cats, a trait which we enthusiastically share with our eighteenth century forbear, Christopher Smart. This review is also a departure from our usual fare in other key respects. It is our first review of a blank verse poem, perhaps arguably the first ever "free verse" poem in English. This is also the first time we are critiquing a poem from the Augustan Age of English literature, when sonnets were, if anything, distinctly out of favour on the literary scene. It is the first poem falling squarely in the category of "animalia", or in other words, the first piece which is not centred on an anthropocentric or human theme. This alone makes both the poem itself and our review highly unusual, insofar as historically almost all poetry is composed about people and for people. "Animalia" poems, most of which are in fact fables, such as the fables of Aesop (ca. 620-560 BC) in ancient Greek, and the fables of Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) and Charles Perrault (1628-1703) in French, are extremely rare beasts indeed, if you will pardon the pun.
Christopher Smart's Biography and Poetry
Christopher Smart was born in 1722 in Shipbourne, Kent, England. He attended Durham School and Cambridge University, where he excelled at versifying in Latin. An editor and copywriter for the newly flourishing periodicals of his day, he was also a songwriter for the London theatres. Christopher Smart suffered from alcoholism most of his life, which turned him into a reckless spendthrift, landing him in debtor's prison on more than one occasion. By the 1750s, his alcoholism had lapsed into full blown religious mania, which drove him to almost incessant prayer. The brilliant Augustine writer, Samuel Johnson remarked of him, "My poor friend Smart showed the disturbance of his mind by falling upon his knees, and saying his prayers in the street, or in any other unusual place." He eventually succumbed to mental illness and was confined to various madhouses for the next few years (1756-1763). He ended his life in dire poverty, which occasioned his arrest for debt again in 1770. He died in 1771 [2].
Publication history:
In 1752 he published his first volume, "Poems on Several Occasions". Strongly influenced by the great Roman poet Horace's famous Odes, he translated them into English in 1756. That same year, he also published his glorious "Hymn to the Supreme Being, on Recovery from a Dangerous Fit of Illness", the title of which is reminiscent of several of John Donne's earlier devotions and meditations issuing from his own severe illness. He is perhaps best known for his eulogistic paën, "A Song to David" (1763) [3], which extols the author of the Psalms as an ideal archetype of divine poetic inspiration. This beautiful lyric was to win acclaim from William Butler Yeats, who saw in it a fervent affirmation of religious fervour and Christian belief in an English society growing increasingly more attached to mere materialistic ideals.
So it is scarcely surprising that Christopher Smart has often been hailed as a true forerunner to none other than William Blake himself, and even to the nineteenth century recluse, John Clare, who was himself also confined to a madhouse for most of his adult life.
The similarities between Smart's religious poetry and Blake's "Songs of Innocence" (1789) and "Songs of Experience" (1794) are more than merely coincidental. Smart's mini-epic "Jubilate Agno" [4], composed between 1756 and 1763, runs to hundreds of lines. It can expediently be divided into four fragments of antiphonal verses (A,B,C and D), plus an additional segment 74 lines long, bearing the title, "For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry", the subject of this review. While it may appear astounding that a poet of Christopher Smart's obvious stature should have included a "kitty ditty" in his "Jubilate Agno" (Praise to the Lamb/Christ) eulogy, we must bear in mind that he was, after all, not exactly in his right mind. In spite of this, the segment of the poem devoted to his adored cat is exceedingly charming, and makes for cheerful reading for adults and children alike even in our "advanced" day and age. Oddly enough, this last surviving fragment of Christopher Smart's Ode was not published until as recently as 1939 and again in 1954 [5].
EXCERPTS FROM: Jubilate Agno, "For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry"
Exceptionally, in this month's review, we cannot reproduce the text entire of the last segment of Christopher Smart's "Jubilate Agno", in which he extols the many virtues of his cat, Jeoffry. It is just too long. Consequently, we have decided to flag a few passages which appeal more directly to us, for one reason or another, as shall become apparent as we proceed through the text. For convenience, our commentary is interspersed throughout the body of the excerpta we have culled from the whole poem.
"For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry"
INTROIT
For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.
For he is the servant of the Living God [7.1] duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.
For this is done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.
For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.
COMMENTS on the INTROIT:
If the Introit to Christopher Smart's eulogy of his cat, Jeoffry, reads for all the world like a series of verses lifted right from The Psalms of David, this is no mere happenstance. Smart's diction here is quite deliberate and conscious, adopting the same tone he has espoused throughout the preceding four fragments of his "Jubilate Agno". There is one signal difference. While his religious devotion is to be construed as deadly serious in the first four fragments of his eulogy, that can hardly be said for the segment on his cat, Jeoffry, which our poet surely intends us to take tongue-in-cheek. In short, this is a spoof on the genre of religious testaments.
The second characteristic of this segment is truly startling. What we are witnessing here is unquestionably one of the very earliest examples of blank verse ever composed in English. Some critics might even go so far as to categorize this as free verse, though I myself hesitate to do so, on these counts: first, the metrical rhythm of this segment is by and large regular and predictable; secondly, it reads very much like The King James Version of the Psalms of David, which most exegesists would surely consider to be at least blank verse; and thirdly, Smart's repetitive introduction of each verse with the conjunction "For" is highly reminiscent of the ancient Greek and Latin poets' strong reliance on the equivalent conjunctions "gar" (Greek postpositive [8] ) and the Latin "nam". While the poem may appear at first glance to be loosely concatenated blank verse, it is in fact highly structured Classical poetry, meticulously composed according to the formal classical dictates in vogue during the Augustan Age of English literature, of which Christopher Smart is an exemplar.
To round out our commentary on the Introit, we note that Smart almost immediately refers to his beloved cat as none other than "the servant of the Living God", high praise indeed, usually reserved for human prophets and saints. The poet seems to be investing his cat with the gift of prophecy. Later extracts from the segment appear to confirm this interpretation. If the poet's phrasing sounds distinctly familiar to you, it should, for he is actually paraphrasing a famous passage from the Old Testament:
"For he is the living God
and he endures for ever;
his kingdom will not be destroyed,
his dominion will never end.
He rescues and he saves;
he performs signs and wonders
in the heavens and on the earth.
He has rescued Daniel
from the power of the lions (Italics mine)." [7.1 Daniel 6:26-27]
Further extracts from the poem, "My Cat Jeoffry", with exegesis:
For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself.
For this he performs in ten degrees.
... passim ...
For having consider'd God and himself he will consider his neighbour [7.2].
For if he meets another cat he will kiss her in kindness.
... passim ...
For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him.
For he is of the tribe of Tiger.
For the Cherub Cat is a term of the Angel Tiger [9].
For he has the subtlety and hissing of a serpent, which in goodness he suppresses.
For he will not do destruction, if he is well-fed, neither will he spit without provocation.
For he purrs in thankfulness, when God tells him he's a good Cat.
For he is an instrument for the children to learn benevolence upon.
For every house is incomplete without him and a blessing is lacking in the spirit [7.3].
For the Lord commanded Moses concerning the cats at the departure of the Children of Israel from Egypt.
For every family had one cat at least in the bag.
For the English Cats are the best in Europe.
... passim ...
For he is tenacious of his point.
For he is a mixture of gravity and waggery.
For he knows that God is his Saviour [7.4].
For there is nothing sweeter than his ease when at rest.
For he is docile and can learn certain things.
For he can set up with gravity which is patience upon approbation.
... passim ...
For he made a great figure in Egypt for his signal services [5].
For he killed the Ichneumon-rat very pernicious by land.
For his ears are so acute that they sting again.
For from this proceeds the passing quickness of his attention.
... passim ...
For I perceived God's light about him both wax and fire.
For the Electrical fire is the spiritual substance, which God sends from heaven to sustain the bodies both of man and beast.
... passim ...
For he can tread to all the measures upon the music.
The preceding excerpts are actually representative of the wry and fay sense of humour pervasive throughout this segment. Allow me to draw your attention to certain allusions and references in these verses. We have learned from the Introit that the poet's cat is truly worthy of God's blessing in the highest degree. Christopher Smart is at pains to demonstrate that his beloved cat, Jeoffry, as blessed a creature as he is, is more inclined to consider himself first before anyone else. If you are a cat lover yourself, this must occasion a smile on your face. Anyone who knows cats realizes fully well that they consider themselves the centre of the universe... after God alone, of course. Now, while the verse "For this he performs in ten degrees." might initially strike us as singularly odd, it really isn't, for our poet then goes on to merrily enumerate the 10 ways in which Jeoffry "performs" his acts of self-consideration, to his feline credit, to be sure.
However, it would be a gross error in human judgement (and a mistake which most humans, alas, make when we consider cats) to assume that Jeoffry does not really consider his neighbour. Quite to the contrary: once he has rightfully considered himself first, being a cat, then and only then does he rightfully "consider his neighbour". The Biblical allusion to the often repeated injunction, "Love your neighbour as yourself" is here given an ironic and delightfully humorous twist [7.2].
And the Biblical allusions to both the Old and New Testament just keep piling up, as in:
For he is an instrument for the children to learn benevolence upon.
For every house is incomplete without him and a blessing is lacking in the spirit [7.3].
Rather than being trite or sacrilegious, though, the cumulative effect is charming and uplifting. We really are left with the distinct impression that Christopher Smart does indeed believe his cat, Jeoffry, is marked by God himself as one of the Earth's most blessed creatures, just slightly below the angels.
But there is more. Not only is his cat, Jeoffry, most blessed in the sight of God, and a paragon of prophecy, he is also, and here the poet fairly exults, "of the tribe of Tiger". In case we are left in any doubt whatsoever about the exalted station of his cat, the poet compares Jeoffry to none other than "the Cherub Cat" and "the Angel Tiger". If all this sounds uncannily familiar, you can't be blamed. Just a generation or so later, the famous early Romantic poet would take up the theme again in his fantastical allegory, "Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright" (1794) [9]. The prime difference in Smart's imagery and Blake's is that the former poet sets his little tiger in the full glory of the sun, "For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him", whereas we all know William Blake's tiger is a fearful denizen of the night,
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,...
Whether William Blake actually consciously emulated Christopher Smart's earlier eulogy we will never know. But it appears doubtful at best. Their attitudes towards the feline species are almost diametrically opposed. Smart's is one of affection bordering on worship. Blake's is one of holy awe and fear.
Other Biblical references, such as "For he made a great figure in Egypt for his signal services" are subsumed in the References & Notes.
All in all, then, Christopher Smart's playful enumerative eulogy of his cat must stand as one of the earliest examples of truly imaginative English blank verse. Moreover, unlike most "animalia" poetry, this is not a fable. The poet, who normally borders on religious fanaticism, manages here to poke light fun at his own spiritual fervour, while at the same time remaining faithful to his Christianity and his beliefs. There is nothing really profane or sacrilegious about the segment. It is merely good clean fun. Anyone who loves cats is bound to enjoy this charming little poem. It also makes for an amusing bedtime tale for parents who wish to read their children to sleep. We sincerely hope you have enjoyed the poem as much as we, all the cat lovers in the world, most decidedly have.
Feline Poetry and Sonnet Lore Past and Present
Hunting with feline perspicuity through the annals of cat poetry lore, we soon discover there have been plenty of other poems composed by many a cat lover, past and present, glowing ecstatic over his or her favourite cat, or as cats are so often called, our familiars. We also find ourselves returning to our familiar lair, the domain of the sonnet, for of the instances which I cite below of feline poetry lore, almost all are sonnets. We will first flag just a few samples of the scores of historical poems that have been written in praise of the cat, that most adored or most maligned of domestic creatures, depending on whether you love cats or hate them. They seem to inspire little intermediate feeling. Of course, all the poems we are citing here honour the cat, never so much as demeaning her feline nobility. For each cat poem or sonnet we bring you, we provide you with a small excerpt to tempt you to read further, should you so desire.
HISTORICAL
Just scratching the surface, if you will pardon the obvious pun, we readily alight on many examples of historical poems in praise of the feline species, a few of which I now list in alphabetical order by author:
Margaret Bruner (1932):
This tender sonnet reveals the sonneteer's profound love of cats, when she rescues a tiny little orphan kitten from a cruel snowstorm. Note that Margaret Bruner does not hesitate to compare her little darling with an abandoned human child. It must have won her over so easily in its wide-eyed fear.
Charles Baudelaire, (1821-1867):
Le Chat. Les Fleurs du Mal (sonnet XXXIII)
Viens, mon beau chat, sur mon coeur amoureux ;
Retiens les griffes de ta patte,... [11]
Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)
The Cat. The Flowers of Evil (Sonnet XXXIII)
Come, my cat, love, onto my loving breast;
Withdraw those claws on your calico paws,... [11]
English Sonnet, Translated from the French by Richard Vallance, © 2002
This sonnet in particular is one of the greatest masterpieces of all French literature, and one of the most often quoted sonnets from Baudelaire's highly acclaimed collection of quatrains and sonnets, "Les Fleurs du Mal".
John Keats (1796-1821):
How many mice and rats hast in thy days
Destroy'd? - How many tit bits stolen? Gaze
With those bright languid segments green, and prick
Those velvet ears - but pr'ythee do not stick
Thy latent talons in me... [12]
CONTEMPORARY
Hunting through the underbrush of contemporary 21st. century poetry, we once again pounce upon many examples of feline poetry in fine fettle, for instance:
Helga Ross (Canada):
It is immediately apparent that Helga Ross is familiar with William Blake's illustrious quatrain, "Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright", right at the very outset of this whimsical contemporary sonnet. Whether Ms. Ross is also on familiar terms with Christopher Smart's earlier eulogy of his own cat, Jeoffry, is a moot point. Yet, clearly we have here a felicitous modern adaptation of Blake's great poem.
And again, by the same felinely inspired poet, we have:
If ever we were in doubt that Helga Ross adores cats, we surely should not be. Just as Christopher smart extols English cats as being "the best in Europe", Helga Ross praises our Canadian cats as being far and away the best in North America, as if there ever was the slightest doubt of that.
Not to be outdone or outshone by any upstart Canuck cats, Sara Russell's cat, Harley, has his two pence worth to toss onto the scratched armchair.
Of course, we should not leap to conclusions, as it were, concerning the presumed human authorship of the above poem, which quite obviously is the work of Harley's paws. Of the cat poems past and present we cite here, this is the only one which is not a sonnet, though, believe me, Sara, although merely a human, has composed many a cat sonnet herself.
Last but far from least, here is Richard Vallance's eulogy of his late Manx, Adoré, an adorable little Manx he and his friend, Louis-Dominique, rescued from the jaws of certain death in June 2004.
Manx Adoré
Dusk falls, and with its dew along our lawn
there hops, hare-like a little like a lynx,
a little scruffy waif, whose fur's too fawn,
whose dusted paw hesitates when he shrinks,...
© by Richard Vallance 2003 [16]
This last sonnet is particularly poignant, as Adoré, my little orange Manx, was a stray, just like the little waif Margaret Bruner rescued from the snow. Sadly, little Adoré had been coarsely neglected in his brief lifetime. When we found and rescued him, he was already chronically ill. The poor little tyke only lived for six more months under our intensive care. But like almost all Manxes, he was an outdoors cat par excellence, and in the short 180 days he remained alive, he spent the vast majority of these on outdoors romps with us in the local parks and in the forests by the lakes surrounding the City of Ottawa. Adoré died on December 24 2003. He is dear to our hearts, and will always be sorely missed. In Memoriam Adoré. Fortunately for the author, he has acquired another outdoors cat, this time round a Maine Coon, Richard's famous Argentée [1]. And she is as healthy as the proverbial horse.
We sincerely hope you have enjoyed this review of the annals of feline poetry literature, past and present.
© by Richard Vallance January 25 2005, with the editorial assistance of Bradley Alexander Bucsis (Canada), Jim Dunlap and Carmen Ruggero (USA)
Coming in March 2005, Edna Saint-Vincent Millay, a Thoroughly Modern Sonneteer
Next month's Vallance Review, no. 43, "Edna Saint-Vincent Millay, a Thoroughly Modern Sonneteer", illustrates the flowering of the modern sonnet, as we understand it today. Edna Saint-Vincent Millay (1892-1950) is renowned for writing cleanly executed, finely nuanced psychological sonnets in fluid modern English. Gone forever from her splendid sonnets are archaisms, inverted sentence structure, maudlin sentiments and trite rhymes. Like many poets of the early to mid-twentieth century, Millay was to pioneer the new sonnet style that now prevails in English, American and Canadian sonnet literature. As a poetic genre, the sonnet would have fallen into wide disuse in the latter part of the twentieth century (and it almost did), had not such "modern" sonneteers as Rupert Brooke (1887-1915), Alan Seeger (1888-1916) and Edna Saint-Vincent Millay infused the genre with new-found life, energy and inspiration in tune with a world that had profoundly changed since the nineteenth century. By drawing examples from several of Millay's deeply moving sonnets, we will exemplify the characteristics of the modern sonnet of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, as opposed to its more conventional forbears from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
REFERENCES & NOTES:
References & Notes:
[1] Richard's Maine Coon, Argentée, has won the cardinal honour of being not only one of the Famous Internet Cats, "Main Coons, courtesy of Richard Vallance", but also one of three featured pets in the January 2005 issue of the Newsletter of The Ottawa Humane Society, Ottawa, Ontario. Perhaps Richard should consider writing a paën to Argentée as well. Well, actually he has, in the guise of his sonnet, "My Silver Maine Coon", to be published in The New Pleiades Anthology of Poetry © 2005, slated for publication in the summer of 2005.
[2] Most of the information I have used for my introductory biography of Christopher Smart is culled from, OldPoetry.com: Christopher Smart
[3] Christopher Smart, A Song to David (1763:
Excerpts from Christopher Smart's, "Song to David":
His muse, bright angel of his verse,
Gives balm for all the thorns that pierce,
For all the pangs that rage;
Blest light still gaining on the gloom,
The more than Michal of his bloom,
Th' Abishag of his age.
... passim ...
For Adoration, David's Psalms
Lift up the heart to deeds of alms;
And he, who kneels and chants,
Prevails his passions to control,
Finds meat and medicine to the soul,
Which for translation pants.
[4] Christopher Smart (1722-1771) Jubilate Agno (1756-1763) BEGINS:
Rejoice in God, O ye Tongues; give the glory to the Lord, and the Lamb.
Nations, and languages, and every Creature, in which is the breath of Life.
[5] FROM Representative Poetry Online: For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry (74 lines. Scroll to Notes at the bottom of the page for recent publication bibliographic data.
This delightful poem can also be found in the amusing feline anthology:
Skidmore, Marmadkue. The Triumphant Cat; an Anthology of Verse, Prose & Pictures; Gathered from the Ancient & Authors. London: Robinson Publishing, © 1993. ISBN 1-85487-241-9. xvi, 160 pp. pp. 63-68.
[6] FROM RPO [5] above: Christopher Smart, "My Cat Jeoffry". NOTE: Israel. Cats were well known in Egypt, but are not mentioned in the Bible. This excerpt from Jubilate Agno is reprinted by permission of Rupert Hart-Davis.
[7] Biblical cross references:
7.1 Daniel was known as the “servant of the living God”; and when he was thrown into the lions’ den, his God shut the lions’ mouths and they did not hurt him (Dan. 6.20,22) Daniel is called, "The Servant of the Living God" [Daniel 6:20]
[7.2] This injunction, to love one's neighbour as oneself, occurs countless time in the Old and New Testaments. Here are a few of the most notable instances of God's command:
Leviticus 19:18b, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Matthew 22:37-40, "To be perfect, to fulfill the law, and to be ready for eternal life is to love God with all your heart, mind, soul and to love your neighbour as yourself."
Galatians 5:14 & Romans 13:9: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
[7.3] Ezekiel 34:26 “There shall be showers of blessing.”
Judah 24:3 "And the heavens shall be opened to him to pour out the spirit, the blessing of the Holy Father."
Luke 11:11- 13, “... how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
[7.4] Hosea 6:3a, "So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord."
"Only Saviour" (Isa 43:11; 45:21; Hos 13:4; Jude 25)
Luke 1:47, "And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour."
[8] A postpositive conjunction cannot stand first in its sentence. In ancient Greek, the word "for" could never stand first in a sentence.
[9] RPO: William Blake (1757-1827), "The Tyger" (1794)
[10] Margaret Bruner, Sonnet. From the Hill Road (1932) in: SONNETTO POESIA Vol. 2 no. 3, summer 2003
[11] Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) Le Chat ( les Fleurs du Mal: Sonnet XXXIII ), in: SONNETTO POESIA Vol. 2 no.3 summer 2003. English Sonnet, Transliterated from the French by Richard Vallance, © 2002, previously published in the CD-ROM book, Canadian Spirit Voices, © by Richard Vallance, 2003. Kedco Studios Press, Las Vegas, Nevada. ISBN 1-878431-44-7. Approximately 500 pp. Chapter 11, Translations, poem 23 = rv 11-23.htm
[12] John Keats (1796-1821). To Mrs. Reynold's Cat. Posthumous and Fugitive Poems
[13] Helga Ross, His Lopsided Grin, in: SONNETTO POESIA Vol. 3 no. 4 2004
[14] Helga Ross, Scaredy-Cat Sonnet, in: Author's Den
[15] Sara Russell, Felix Regina, in: SONNETTO POESIA Vol. 3 no. 4, Autumn 2004
[16] Richard Vallance. Manx Adoré, in: SONNETTO POESIA Vol. 2 no. 3 summer 2003
Richard Vallance is the author of:
Canadian Federation of Poets: Poetry Lessons: Lesson & Exercise - Week 18 SONNETS
in The Canadian Federation of Poets weekly Poetry Progress Lessons & Exercises series
The Vallance Review is frequently cited in our Canadian sonnet journal, SONNETTO POESIA ISSN 1706-4524. To read the current issue or any back issues, you may visit the sonnet journal's Home Page here:
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