T. S. Eliot Trivia

1. What is the name of 'the old Gumbie cat'?

From Quiz Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Answer: Jennyanydots

She doesn't do much except sit around during the day. Her family think she's lazy, but in fact she teaches mice music, crocheting and tatting at night.

From Quiz T. S. Eliot's "Macavity - The Mystery Cat"

Answer: "Hidden Paw"

"Macavity's a mystery cat: he's called the Hidden Paw- For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law." The "Hooded Claw" comes from the cartoon series "The Perils of Penelope Pitstop". Mungojerrie and Griddlebone appear in the same book as Macavity and are his "agents" in his criminal escapades.

From Quiz The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Answer: etherized upon a table

"LET us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherised upon a table;"

From Quiz The Works of T.S. Eliot 1888-1929

Answer: Ezra Pound

The magazine "Poetry: A Magazine of Verse" published the poem in June 1915, at the request of Ezra Pound (who was the foreign editor of the magazine). Pound became a mentor and lifelong friend of Eliot. The other poets were all contributors to the magazine.

From Quiz The Waste Land

Answer: Ezra Pound & Pound

He also helped with the writing of the poem.

From Quiz T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land"

Answer: He do the Police in Different Voices

The working title was "He Do the Police in Different Voices", which is a quote from Charles Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend". Betty Higden says of Sloppy, "I do love a newspaper. You mightn't think it, but Sloppy is a beautiful reader of a newspaper. He do the Police in different voices." The title is supposed to reflect the many voices within the poem.

From Quiz Old Possum's Practical Cats: Which Cat??

Answer: Macavity the Mystery Cat

T. S. Eliot's full name was Thomas Stearns Eliot and he was born in 1888 in Missouri. He was a delicate child and cosseted by his family and nurse.

From Quiz Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Answer: Macavity

From "Macavity: the Mystery Cat": "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 their operations: the Napoleon of Crime!"

From Quiz Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Answer: Growltiger

The barge apparently travelled the river from Oxford to Gravesend, and Growltiger would terrorise humans living along the river and also any birds such as geese and chickens that he came across, not to mention the Bandicoot who could be found on foreign ships.

From Quiz T. S. Eliot's "Macavity - The Mystery Cat"

Answer: The Flying Squad

"He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's Despair: For when they reach the scene of crime- Macavity's not there!".

From Quiz The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Answer: oyster shells

"And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells"

From Quiz The Works of T.S. Eliot 1888-1929

Answer: "I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled."

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is also referred to as "Prufrock". It was this poem that turned Eliot into what he ultimately became - one of the most influential poets of his time. A few of the well known poets that Eliot was influenced by included Homer, Ezra Pound, and Dante Alighieri (better known as Dante, from "Dante's Inferno", "Purgatorio", etc.)

From Quiz The Waste Land

Answer: Geoffrey Chaucer

It is from "The Canterbury Tales".

From Quiz T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land"

Answer: Ezra Pound & ezra pound & pound & Pound

Pound, a poet renowned for helping other poets to establish themselves, edited and made suggestions to Eliot for revising the poem. Whole sections were cut at his suggestion. Hence, the dedication of the poem is "For Ezra Pound, il miglior fabbro".

From Quiz Old Possum's Practical Cats: Which Cat??

Answer: Growltiger

Eliot's father was the Reverend William Greenleaf Eliot, who founded the Washington University of St Louis.

From Quiz Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Answer: Rumpuscat

This poem has a rather longwinded title: "Of the Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles: Together with Some Account of the Participation of the Pugs and the Poms, and the Intervention of the Great Rumpuscat."

From Quiz "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

Answer: Ezra Pound

The poem is 140 lines long, and its publication was aided by Ezra Pound, who was an overseas editor of "Poetry: A Magazine of Verse". In November 1915, the poem was included with four other Eliot poems in the "Catholic Anthology 1914-1915," which was also edited by Pound. Pound helped to develop the Imagism movement, which stresses precision and clarity in language, and is the author of "Ripostes" and "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley".

From Quiz Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Answer: Rum Tum Tugger

Rum Tum Tugger always chose the unexpected option in an effort to be different to any other cat.

From Quiz T. S. Eliot's "Macavity - The Mystery Cat"

Answer: Fakir

Macavity appears in the musical "Cats" which is based on the book of poems by T.S. Eliot. He seems to have the ability to hypnotise the "Jellicle" cat "Old Deuteronomy" when he kidnaps him in the show.

From Quiz The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Answer: Michelangelo

"In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo." For some reason, this repeating line always appealed to me.

From Quiz The Works of T.S. Eliot 1888-1929

Answer: The Journey of The Magi

Written in 1927, "The Journey of The Magi" is quite the opposite of what it sounds like - it was miserable and full of hatred. The poem was published in Eliot's "Ariel Poems" in 1930.

From Quiz The Waste Land

Answer: An account of an explorer's expedition in Antarctica

It was an account written by the explorer, Shackleton.

From Quiz T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land"

Answer: Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"

The first epigraph Eliot designated to the poem came from Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". However, Pound did not believe Conrad was worthy of the citation, so Eliot changed it.

From Quiz Old Possum's Practical Cats: Which Cat??

Answer: A Peke and a Pollicle

Eliot was lucky enough to study at some of the best educational establishments in the world, including the Sorbonne (France), Oxford University (England), and Harvard (USA).

From Quiz Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Answer: "The Fox and French Horn"

In the third Stanza of "Old Deuteronomy."

From Quiz "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

Answer: Rudyard Kipling

T.S. Eliot's address to the Kipling Society, "The Unfading Genius of Rudyard Kipling," was published in the March 1959 "Kipling Journal." In this address, he admits that the influence of Kipling appears throughout his own poetry. Of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", Eliot said, "it would never have been called 'Love Song' but for a title of Kipling's that stuck obstinately in my head: 'The Love Song of Har Dyal.'"

From Quiz Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Answer: Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer

Ming vases were not safe from being knocked over, according to the original poem, and their owners would often find things missing.

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