Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) was born in St. Louis, Missouri, of an old New England family. He was
educated at Harvard and did graduate work in philosophy at the Sorbonne, Harvard, and Merton College, Oxford. He
settled in England, where he was for a time a schoolmaster and a bank clerk, and eventually literary editor for the
publishing house Faber & Faber, of which he later became a director. He founded and, during the seventeen years of
its publication (1922-1939), edited the exclusive and influential literary journal Criterion. In 1927, Eliot became a
British citizen and about the same time entered the Anglican Church.
Eliot has been one of the most daring innovators of twentieth-century poetry. Never compromising either with
the public or indeed with language itself, he has followed his belief that poetry should aim at a representation
of the complexities of modern civilization in language and that such representation necessarily leads to
difficult poetry. Despite this difficulty his influence on modern poetic diction has been immense
Eliot's poetry from Prufrock (1917) to the Four Quartets (1943) reflects the development of a Christian writer:
the early work, especially The Waste Land (1922), is essentially negative, the expression of that horror from
which the search for a higher world arises. In Ash Wednesday (1930) and the Four Quartets this higher world
becomes more visible; nonetheless Eliot has always taken care not to become a «religious poet». and often
belittled the power of poetry as a religious force. However, his dramas Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and The
Family Reunion (1939) are more openly Christian apologies. In his essays, especially the later ones, Eliot
advocates a traditionalism in religion, society, and literature that seems at odds with his pioneer activity as a
poet. But although the Eliot of Notes towards the Definition of Culture (1948) is an older man than the poet of
The Waste Land, it should not be forgotten that for Eliot tradition is a living organism comprising past and
present in constant mutual interaction. Eliot's plays Murder in the Cathedral (1935), The Family Reunion
(1939), The Cocktail Party (1949), The Confidential Clerk (1954), and TheElderStatesman(1959) were published
in one volume in 1962; Collected Poems 1909-62 appeared in 1963.
T.S. Eliot died on January 4, 1965.
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.The poem is considered particularly
suitable reading for 11 and 12 year olds.
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." Sherlock
Holmes describes Moriarty as "the Napoleon of Crime" in The Adventure of the Final Problem and
a "Napoleon gone wrong" in The Valley of Fear. 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!
Visit the link below and listen to the audio recital
of the poem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVJGsLV
_RMU
 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. "Sherlock Holmes describes Moriarty as
"the Napoleon of Crime" in The Adventure of the Final Problem
and a "Napoleon gone wrong" in The Valley of Fear. 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.
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
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?
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
NCERT TEXT
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