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“But when the day's hustle and bustle is done,
Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun.”

(T.S. Eliot)

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The Old Gumbie Cat

T. S. Eliot, 1939

 

I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;
Her coat is of the tabby kind, with tiger stripes and leopard spots.
All day she sits upon the stair or on the steps or on the mat:
She sits and sits and sits and sits - and that's what makes a Gumbie Cat!

  But when the day's hustle and bustle is done,
  Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun.
  And when all the family's in bed and asleep,
  She slips down the stairs to the basement to creep.
  She is deeply concerned with the ways of the mice -
  Their behaviour's not good and their manners not nice;
  So when she has got them lined up on the matting,
  She teaches them music, crocheting and tatting.

I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;
Her equal would be hard to find, she likes the warm and sunny spots.
All day she sits beside the hearth or in the sun or on my hat:
She sits and sits and sits and sits - and that's what makes a Gumbie Cat!

  But when the day's hustle and bustle is done,
  Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun.
  As she finds that the mice will not ever keep quiet,
  She is sure it is due to irregular diet
  And believing that nothing is done without trying,
  She sets straight to work with her baking and frying.
  She makes them a mouse-cake of bread and dried peas,
  And a beautiful fry of lean bacon and cheese.

I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;
The curtain-cord she likes to wind, and tie it into sailor-knots.
She sits upon the window-sill, or anything that's smooth and flat:
She sits and sits and sits and sits - and that's what makes a Gumbie Cat!

  But when the day's hustle and bustle is done,
  Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun.
  She thinks that the cockroaches just need employment,
  So she's formed, from that lot of disorderly louts,
  A troop of well-disciplined helpful boy-scouts,
  With a purpose in life and a good deed to do -
  And she's even created a Beetles' Tattoo.

So for Old Gumbie Cats let us now give three cheers -
On whom well-ordered households depend, it appears.

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