A few days ago, while thumbing through my well-worn copy of The Collected Poems of William Butler Yeats, I came across his poem The Cat and The Moon. It reminded me of one of the many reasons we find these animals so fascinating: their strange, almost magical connection to the world around them. In this poem, Yeats sees the phases of the moon in the eyes of Minnaloushe, his friend Maude Gonne’s black cat, as they change from crescent to round.
The Cat and the Moon The cat went here and there And the moon spun round like a top, And the nearest kin of the moon The creeping cat looked up. Black Minnaloushe stared at the moon, For wander and wail as he would The pure cold light in the sky Troubled his animal blood. Minnaloushe runs in the grass, Lifting his delicate feet. Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance? When two close kindred meet What better than call a dance? Maybe the moon may learn, Tired of that courtly fashion, A new dance turn. Minnaloushe creeps through the grass From moonlit place to place, The sacred moon overhead Has taken a new phase. Does Minnaloushe know that his pupils Will pass from change to change, And that from round to crescent, From crescent to round they range? Minnaloushe creeps through the grass Alone, important and wise, And lifts to the changing moon His changing eyes. William Butler Yeats, Public Domain
While we were putting this posting together, we were reminded of the many times the irresistible, inscrutible, indespensible cat has featured in the lives and works of writers and artists, as well as the people who shaped our history. In fact, we already have a follow-up to this posting in the works. Stay tuned!
