Curiosity: one of my many favourite poems..

[fajrdrako]

I got this meme from janne_d: When you see this, post your favorite poem in your journal.

Of course I have more than one favourite poem. And janne_d had already picked two of them. How did she do that?

In any case, here's another.

Curiosity
By Alastair Reid

may have killed the cat; more likely
the cat was just unlucky, or else curious
to see what death was like, having no cause
to go on licking paws, or fathering
litter on litter of kittens, predictably.

Nevertheless, to be curious
is dangerous enough. To distrust
what is always said, what seems
to ask odd questions, interfere in dreams,
leave home, smell rats, have hunches
do not endear cats to those doggy circles
where well-smelt baskets, suitable wives, good lunches
are the order of things, and where prevails
much wagging of incurious heads and tails.

Face it. Curiosity
will not cause us to die--
only lack of it will.
Never to want to see
the other side of the hill
or that improbable country
where living is an idyll
(although a probable hell)
would kill us all.

Only the curious have, if they live, a tale
worth telling at all.

Dogs say cats love too much, are irresponsible,
are changeable, marry too many wives,
desert their children, chill all dinner tables
with tales of their nine lives.
Well, they are lucky. Let them be
nine-lived and contradictory,
curious enough to change, prepared to pay
the cat price, which is to die
and die again and again,
each time with no less pain.
A cat minority of one
is all that can be counted on
to tell the truth. And what cats have to tell
on each return from hell
is this: that dying is what the living do,
that dying is what the loving do,
and that dead dogs are those who do not know
that dying is what, to live, each has to do.

[It wasn't till after I'd posted it and read it over again that I thought: Hmm, sounds like Captain Jack Harkness. My favourite type.]

Comments

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Hmm, that really does sound like Jack, especially the last bit. Not a poem I've seen before - thanks for posting it.

How did she do that?

Pure serendipity. They really were the first two that came into my head.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. I came across this in a school book belonging to one of my cousins, long ago. I love Alastair Reid's work.

If your favourites are my favourites, I think you have good taste in poetry. That John Donne sonnet always gives me shivers. In a good way.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_medley_/]

Ooh, I love that poem. I hadn't read it before. Yes, it is very Jack, and also sort of Doctor-y as well, I think. (But then again, I'm very consistent, too. *g*)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Your right, it does sound like the Doctor. And like some of my other favourite heroes, the mavericks and the outcasts.

I'm glad I was able to indtroduce you to such a good poem - I had a sort of notion that everyone in the world much know it, just because it was covered in my cousin's high school English class (but not mine). But I don't come across it much in public, so I'm glad to wave it around over my head and say, "See? See? This is a good one!"

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

*grins* So do you.

That sonnet is definitely shivery. I have a vague idea that the first time I came across it was actually in a HL fanfic being said by Methos. Who says fanfic isn't educational?

I have 4 or 5 A5 notebooks where I've copied out all the poems I really liked from about 8 different anthologies - I think there are a couple of hundred poems altogether. I used to get the anthologies out of the library because I did't want to buy them and then find I didn't like half the contents! I did consider transferring them to the PC because I wrote them in fountain pen and they have faded a bit, but it would take a long time - and I can usually find most of them online anyway.

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, that's fantastic. Thank you for sharing.

prepared to pay
the cat price, which is to die
and die again and again,
each time with no less pain.

Although Jack didn't choose to be a cat in this way, I'm sure his sense of curiosity is one of the things that has helped him embrace his cat life.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_medley_/]

I'm glad you did!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

he first time I came across it was actually in a HL fanfic being said by Methos.

Oooh - that would pack a double whammy. I can just imagine it in Peter Wingfield's wonderful voice, too.

I have old notebooks of my favourite poetry, with loose typed and/or handwritten sheets put into them. It's a bit of a mess, but it's a beloved mess!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked it. Isn't it a wonderful poem? It says so much, so clearly.

Mind you, I'm really a dog lover... But I still like the metaphor!

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

I like this!

Especially the ending:

And what cats have to tell
on each return from hell
is this: that dying is what the living do,
that dying is what the loving do,
and that dead dogs are those who do not know
that dying is what, to live, each has to do.

I really like the paradox of the last line. It's worth remembering.

Though the more I think about it, the less well I think the dog-part of the metaphor works. Hmmm.

PS Sorry about the earlier messed-up version of the comment.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I really like the paradox of the last line. It's worth remembering.


I love that. I like the way the poem builds up to it too, with the elaboration of the metaphor - what seems at first a lifestyle choice, in contrast to the lifestyle choices of the dogs, becomes a strong statement of moral philosophy.

Though the more I think about it, the less well I think the dog-part of the metaphor works.

It doesn't work as a reflection of dog-nature - have you ever met a dog who wasn't curious? But the poem starts with the proverb "curiosity killed the cat" and works from that, so "dogs" as a metaphor for "non-cat/non-curious" makes intuitive sense if you don't think about it too much.

Sorry about the earlier messed-up version of the comment.

It's okay, I do that kind of thing all the time.