Gray's Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat (1176)

Biographical Information

Thomas Gray was born in London on December 26, 1716. He was the only one of twelve children who survived into adulthood. His father, Philip, a scrivener (a person who copies text) was a cruel, violent man, but his mother, Dorothy, believed in her son and operated a millinery business to educate him at Eton school in his childhood and Peterhouse College, Cambridge, as a young man. 

 
He left the college in 1738 without a degree to tour Europe with his friend, Horace Walpole, the son of the first prime minister of England, Robert Walpole (1676-1745). However, Gray did earn a degree in law although he never practiced in that profession. After achieving recognition as a poet, he refused to give public lectures because he was extremely shy. Nevertheless, he gained such widespread acclaim and respect that England offered him the post of poet laureate, which would make him official poet of the realm. However, he rejected the honor. Gray was that rare kind of person who cared little for fame and adulation.

 Gray's Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat

Thomas Gray's "Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat" is a complex and turbulent view into the tragic and horrifying death of Selima, a lovely and unsuspecting feline. With a tone worthy of the regal animal, the reader is taken on a journey into the life of this cat, experiencing not only the beauty that is said creature, but also the sad end she came to, quite undeservingly. Through a skilled combination of tone, connotative words and double meanings, imagery, figurative language and musical device, Gray is able to give the reader a true and appropriate look at the life and death of Selima, a most glorious and wondrous beast.

Gray uses the third-person point of view to relay the ongoing struggle of cat versus nature. The tone is deadly serious, showing a portrait of the cat as a cat with her "conscious tale" and "ears of jet" (7,11), trying to accomplish no more than procuring a hummer of a goldfish for lunch. However, the tale takes a deadly turn when the fated Selima goes a paw too far and tumbles face-first into the goldfish tub. The reader, through this tone (which some might call mock-heroic, could they not see the utter tragedy and seriousness of Selima's fate), is taken into the life and death of a cat who was merely hungry; alas, she ends up swimming with the fishes.

The use of connotative words and double meanings is the underlying foundation of the poem, and provides a tapestry upon which the rest of the poem is woven (and upon which the poor Selima might have loved to nap). In the first stanza, the "lofty vase" mocks "pensive Selima," showing that the vase was aware, all along, of the fate of the cat (1,5). In the second stanza, the reader is shown Selima's "conscious tale," implying that this is no normal cat; she is capable of thought and perception (7). Not only is she a cranially superior breed, she also has a "fair round face," attesting to the beauty that accompanied the brains (8). Gray offers further evidence of Selima's gifted intelligence: when she was peering on the goldfish pond, she appreciated what she saw. According to Gray, she "purred her applause," showing demonstrably that Selima had cognitive abilities never before witnessed by ordinary mortals (12).

Unfortunately, however, Selima's great intelligence was betrayed by her attraction the "angel forms" that appear in the lake, "[betraying] a golden gleam" (14,18). It appears that Selima, like all women of the early seventeenth century, is attracted to riches and gold, for (according to the authority on the subject, Mr. Gray), "what female heart can gold despise," especially when the gold is wrapped around as tasty a morsel as the fish (23).

A bit of foreshadowing is given when our fated heroine, the cat, is referred to as a "hapless nymph," hinting that this paragon of feline acumen is about to experience a bit of bad luck. Selima is just reaching out to claim her prize when "malignant fate," that purveyor of all things evil, smiles down on the scene and perhaps nudges Selima from her throne and into the tub of goldfish (28).

"Eight times" did she "[emerge] from the flood," using up every last life available to her (31). Gray recalls her meowed pleas the cat-gods everywhere, begging for her life. Alas, according to Gray, "no dolphin came" to save her and the servants, Tom and Susan, who's main responsibility was to ensure the good health of Selima the Wonder Cat, batted nary a paw at the ruckus (34). Selima, hanging on as long as she could, extinguished gently amidst the objects of her lunchtime ambitions.

Gray leaves his readers with a lesson, a moral to be learned from the sad story of Selima's death:

From hence, ye beauties, undeceived,

Know, one false step is ne'er retrieved,

And be with caution bold.

Not all that tempts your wandering eyes

And heedless hearts is lawful prize;

Nor all the glisters gold. (37-42)

The powerful message here is clear; be careful where you step, as you may fall into a pond of goldfish and drown. Furthermore, Gray implies, what you covet, though it may be beautiful, may lead you to your death (or even worse, the death of your cat).

The powerful use of connotative words and incredibly subtle didactic message is interwoven with vivid images that allow the reader to become part of the poem. Selima herself is described as having "a snowy beard," a tortoise-shell coat, and "ears of jet and emerald eyes" (8-12). The "tub of death," as it has come to be called in my mind, is shown to be a place of beauty, with the occupants, being the goldfish, described as "angel forms" gliding throughout, "their scaly armor's Tyrian hue" catching the attention of the doomed tortoise-shell wonder (14,16). The reader is shown Selima, with her "looks intent / Again she stretched, again she bent," frantically pawing for those elusive bite-size morsels (25,26). In a startling view, the reader is given a clear and complete picture of the cat as she is alive, and a devastating picture of her death.

Gray interweaves alliteration and assonance liberally throughout the poem, giving it a depth and richness that complements the rhyme and meter. Although subtle, alliteration is sprinkled throughout, as in "fair round face" and "golden gleam," giving the poem a lyrical quality that makes it effortlessly readable (8,18). Assonance is also present, especially with the short "e" sounds of the poem (pensive, Selima, stretched, bent) and mixes exquisitely with the rhyme scheme. The rhyme pattern follows an aabccb pattern. The two "sets" of rhyming lines contain eight syllables each (aa and cc), and the singular lines (b) contain six syllables, causing them to "pop" and engage the reader while declaring a point. The two sets of rhymed lines are in iambic octameter, and the two singular sets are in iambic hexameter, making the entire poem not only easy to read, but enjoyable as well.

Gray's use of tone, connotation, imagery, figurative language and musical device make "Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat" a poem which shocks, impresses and disturbs. With it's didactic message, Gray manages to apply to tragedy of the cat's death to any reader's experience and makes it real and emotionally true, evoking a serene image of life and a horrifying image of death as the cat does what it's supposed to do - be a cat. The mock-heroic style adds humor and levity to the absurd. Gray's mastery of literary tools and style make this a poem that lingers on, laughing in the mind of humans and cats everywhere.

Sources: Gray, Thomas. "Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat." The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 7^th edition. Eds. M.H. Abrams & Steven Greenblatt. New York: Norton 2000. 2829.