Mar 152003
Eve Tushnet, whom I have stupidly neglected to add to my blogroll until now, posts the world’s greatest cat poem, really more an eccentric sermon, by Christopher Smart (1722-1781), considered by many to be the first mad poet in English history. Smart was locked up periodically for praying incessantly in the street. His friend Dr. Johnson didn’t like it, and neither do I.
I believe "poet of sensibility" is the preferred term these days. If I recall correctly, this was only one half of the poem; I think the final form had been been call-and-response, with each "For" in the litany being a response to a lost call, or the other way around. Not that that would have had any effect on your enjoyment of it, but we ought to be as fair as possible to poor Kit.