The Song of the Jellicles

“The Song of the Jellicles” is a children’s poem from T. S. Eliot’s (1888-1965) Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939). Though Eliot was a modernist poet who mainly wrote mature poetry, he also wrote a surprising number of children’s poems. Most of these were for his grandchildren.

In “The Song of the Jellicles,” Eliot creates a fantastical world of cats who sing, dance, and act like humans. Though the poem itself is whimsical, “The Song of the Jellicles” and the book it is part of have some deeper themes of social commentary relevant to Eliot’s time period.

Though most remembered as a modernist poet, Eliot’s children’s poetry has a lasting legacy. The world he created in Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats was later adapted into the popular Broadway musical Cats (1981). Despite this, scholars don’t often focus on Eliot’s children’s poetry. Because of this, there is little academic writing about the poems.

Poet Biography

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri. Eliot was born to a well-off Unitarian family. Suffering from a hernia, the young Eliot spent most of his time reading by himself. He became obsessed with books at an early age, shaping his later career.