Consider the Cat

Eight of the finest poets in the English and French canon sat down to write about a cat. This little book collects what they came up with.

Here is Christopher Smart blessing his cat Jeoffry from inside a madhouse. Thomas Gray giving a drowned tabby a full state funeral. John Keats handing the sonnet to a wheezing old tomcat. W. B. Yeats watching a black cat keep time with the moon. Charles Baudelaire turning the housecat into a sphinx, printed in the original French with a fresh English version made for this book. Christina Rossetti, Algernon Swinburne and Edward Lear round out the set, from quiet elegy to the most beloved nonsense poem in the language.

Every poem comes with a short, plain-spoken reading that shows how it actually works, the simple words, the sharp image, the one metaphor doing all the heavy lifting. No jargon. No homework. Just a clear look under the hood of poems worth keeping.

Consider the Cat is a gift for the person who loves cats and loves language, and cannot always tell the two apart. Read it at the nightstand, give it to the cat owner who already has everything, or save it for the next quiet evening when something warm is asleep on your arm.

Perfect for anyone who has ever been studied, judged and forgiven by a cat.