Essential information about the collection of poems by T. S. Eliot

1. Old Possum's Book
of practical cats
by T. S. Eliot

2. Eliot writes for children

3. A portrayal of the
foibles and
whimsical behaviors
of cats resembling
human beings

4. There is not a clear
plot
No stream of
consciousness
technique
No appeal to literary
sources

5. Interest in
nonsense poetry
Fascination with
different sources
and music

6. His preacher tone is
visible in the
portrayal of
criminals, in the
satire of cats

7. Inperfectibility of
mankind Eliot
wanted to draw up
A search for order
in a chaotic world

8. Structure
The volume is composed of fourteen
poems, none longer than two full
pages, composed in a variety of
rudimentary stanzaic patterns, ranging
from quatrains to stanzas whose
varying lengths are determined more
by content than any preconceived
structural principle.

9. Features
The poetry saves its true
inventiveness for the clever use
of language, which at times
approaches the sprightliness of
nursery rhymes and nonsense
verse