T.S. Eliot Wins Nobel Prize
By Mary Miller Cullins
On November 4th, 1948, St. Louis native T.S. Eliot won the Nobel Prize in literature for his effect on the direction of modern poetry.Born in St. Louis, Missouri to a well-established family, Eliot was the grandson of the founder of Washington University. His father was a businessman and his mother was very involved in local charities.
Eliot Home in the Central West End
Eliot studied at Harvard and the Sorbonne before heading to Oxford. While at Oxford he became lifelong friends with poet Ezra Pound and later moved to England to take up permanent residency. In 1917 he was working at Lloyd’s Bank, writing reviews and essays on the side. He was quietly developing a new style of poetry.
His first major work, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, was published in 1917 and was viewed as the invention of a new kind of poetry. His long, fragmented images and use of blank verse influenced nearly all future poets. I have read many of T. S. Eliot’s poems, but as a cat lover, I am most amused by his poem titled The Naming of Cats. I hope you like it too.
It isn’t just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First of all, there’s the name that the family use daily,
Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,
Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey–
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter–
But all of them sensible everyday names.
But I tell you, a cat needs a name that’s particular,
A name that’s peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum-
Names that never belong to more than one cat.
But above and beyond there’s still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover–
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.
Short URL: http://stlouiscore.com/?p=25912
Posted by Mary Miller Cullins
on Nov 4 2011. Filed under Fun Facts.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
I get pleasure from, lead to I found just what I was taking a look for. You’ve ended my four day lengthy hunt! God Bless you man. Have a great day. Bye