Poet Study: T.S. Eliot

Introduce your kids to the poetry of T.S. Eliot with CATS!  September 26th is his birthday, so it’s a great time to share this famous poet with your children.

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Who is T.S. Eliot?

Thomas Sterns Eliot was born in America in 1888 but settled in England as an adult. He began publishing poems as a college student and went on to be one of the world’s best known poets. He died in 1965. You can read a biography from the Academy of American Poets.

T.S. Eliot Wrote Poems About Cats?

At first I feared my children were too young to enjoy his work, but then I ran across a copy of his book of poetry called Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. These poems about cats were written in the 1930s by Eliot in letters to his godchildren (using the name Old Possum). Later they were published in book form.  We are owned by a Siamese cat and enjoy reading about cats with personality, so this book was a perfect fit for my kids.

The poems introduce amazingly creative feline characters.  Mr. Mistoffelees (the magician), Rum Tum Tugger (who like our cat, “doesn’t care for a cuddle but he’ll leap on your lap in the middle of your sewing”), Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer (a troublesome duo: ” down from the library came a loud ping from a vase which was commonly said to be Ming”), Bustopher Jones (who is “remarkably fat”), Macavity the villain, and more.

Poetry Inspires a Musical

The fun part is that T.S. Eliot’s book of cat poetry inspired the musical Cats.  That’s right, Eliot’s poems were the inspiration for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famous musical that made history playing on Broadway nearly 18 years!  Fortunately you can enjoy a special production of Cats performed by a star cast on DVD.

Note: The dancers are mostly in tight leotards, as is typical for productions we’ve seen like the Nutcracker, but the dancing is decidedly different. For instance, there are video close-ups of Rum Tum Tugger’s Elvis-esque hip gyrations.  I just wanted to forewarn you.  When we started watching it I thought perhaps this wasn’t my greatest idea, but I’m glad we continued to watch and learn more about this iconic theater production.

If you have this DVD be sure to watch the section called “The Making of Cats.”  It has interviews with some of the cast, Andrew Lloyd Webber himself, and many of the other people that brought the show to life for film.  The work behind the scenes, from performing the music and dance just so to hand washing costumes and applying makeup is fascinating.  The discussions about the very beginnings of the Cats musical and the characters and how they combine human and feline characteristics helped us understand, and thus enjoy, the show more.  There is a storyline woven throughout, and I didn’t grasp all of it until we watched the background information.

An interesting story: Andrew Lloyd Webber visited T.S. Eliot’s widow to ask permission to make a musical. She informed him that Eliot had turned down Disney because he didn’t want the cats made into cartoon pussycats. Webber informed her he was thinking more “Hot Gossip” style.  According to Wikipedia,  Hot Gossip was a British dance troupe known for risque costumes and dance moves.  Eliot’s widow says that’s just was he would have wanted!

As you come to know the characters they really grow on you, or at least they did for us.  The vocals stay very true to T.S. Eliot’s original poems, and we’ve been singing their tunes around the house since we watched it…therefore my kids are singing lines from a great poet!  Wonderful!

Visit the bloggers of iHomeschool Network starting on September 1st for ideas to celebrate other fascinating people born in September.