THE MYSTERY CATT.S.ELIOT

Let’s Chit Chat

1.What types of laws did Macavity break?

2What is the other name of Macavity?

3.Which power of Macavity makes even the fakir wonder at?

4.Describe Macavity

5.Is Macavity a clean cat?

The poem Macavity the Mystery Cat is the best known of Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, the only book Eliot wrote for a younger audience.

Macavity (also called the Mystery Cat, the Hidden Paw and Napoleon of Crime) is a master criminal, but in the poem he is too clever to leave any evidence of his guilt.

There is a resemblance with Professor James Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. In a letter to Frank Morley, Eliot wrote, "I have done a new cat modeled on the late Professor Moriarty, but he doesn't seem very popular; too sophisticated perhaps.

The idea that Macavity was Moriarty was first revealed by HT Webster and HW Starr (Macavity: An Attempt to Unravel His Mystery, 1954), an identification rediscovered by Katharine Loesch.

According to the poem, even when the Secret Service decides that Macavity was behind a loss, they can't get him there as "he's a mile away."

Doyle wrote that Moriarty "is never caught" as at moment of crime he probably is "working out problems on a blackboard ten miles away" (The Adventure of the Final Problem). Macavity is described as being a ginger cat who is very tall and thin with sunken eyes, and "sways his head from side to side with movements like a snake". The poem also says: "His brow is deeply lined in thought, his head is highly domed; His coat is dusty from neglect, his whiskers are uncombed." Once again, this description is a close parallel to that of Professor Moriarty.

Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw-- For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law. He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair: For when they reach the scene of crime--Macavity's not there!

Macavity, Macavity, there's no on like Macavity, He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity. His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare, And when you reach the scene of crime--Macavity's not there! You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air-- But I tell you once and once again, Macavity's not there!

Macavity's a ginger cat, he's very tall and thin; You would know him if you saw him, for his eyes are sunken in. His brow is deeply lined with thought, his head is highly doomed; His coat is dusty from neglect, his whiskers are uncombed. He sways his head from side to side, with movements like a snake; And when you think he's half asleep, he's always wide awake.

Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity, For he's a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity. You may meet him in a by-street, you may see him in the square-- But when a crime's discovered, then Macavity's not there!

He's outwardly respectable, I know he cheats at cards And his footprints are not found in any files of Scotland Yard's And when the larder's looted or the jewel case is rifled Or when the milk is missing or another peke's been stifled Or the greenhouse glass is broken and the trellis past repair There's the wonder of the thing Macavity's not there!

Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity There never was a cat of such deceitfulness and suavity He always has an alibi and one or two to spare What ever time the deed took place Macavity wasn't there!

And they say that all the cats whose wicked deeds are widely known I might mention Mungojerrie, I might mention Griddlebone Are nothing more than agents for the cat who all the time Just controls the operations: the Napoleon of crime!

Analysis

• It’s a narrative poem; personification of a cat

• The most sinister of the criminal Cats is Macavity, "The Hidden Paw," also known as the "Napoleon of Crime.”• This is an allusion• Not only is this master criminal never present when any crime

is committed, but he always has at least one alibi.

• Macavity's quite ordinary appearance belies his criminal activities, and no one has ever been able to connect him with any crime.

• Nevertheless, the rumor is that Macavity controls all the known criminals• Cats direct their activities.

Analysis• Stanzas

• 7; 2 quatrains, 3 sestets and 2 octaves

• Rhyme Scheme• AABB CCBBBB DDEEFF CCBB GGHHBB IIBBIIJJ

• CCBBKKLL

• Refrain/Repetition• “Macavity’s not there”• “Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity”

• Simile• “He sways his head from side to side, with movements like a snake” (20)

• Examples of Alliteration• “Macavity’s a Mystery Cat: he’s called the Hidden Paw” (1)• “His brow is deeply lined with thought, his head is highly domed” (18)• “I might mention Mungojerrie, I might mention Griddlebone” (48)