Poetry for Cats: The Definitive Anthology of Distinguished Feline Verse

Even if you don't like cats--or poetry--you'll be tickled by the contents of Henry Beard's Poetry for Cats. Beard has already demonstrated his command of French in previous books, French for Cats and Advanced French for Exceptional Cats. Now he shows off his extraordinary skills as a parodist. Consider, for example, "Grendel's Dog," from "Beocat":

. . . Then boasted Beocat, noble battle-kitten, Bane of barrow-bunnies, bold seeker of nest-booty: . . . I would lay the whelpling low with lethal claw-blows; Fur would fly and the foe would taste death-food . . .

Or, from a later period, William Blake's cat's poem, "The Mongrel":

Mongrel! Mongrel! Barking blight, Bane upon my yard at night; What infernal hand or eye, Could frame thy vile anatomy?

Beard is obviously at home with poetry of many genres, from ancient odes to modern blank verse. These poems are fun even if you don't know the original sources; if you do, they are sublime.