"Jubilate Agno"

I found this work to be very interesting, and very modern in style. The piece seemed reminiscent of Ginsberg's "Howl," with it's irregular line length, and the repeated "beat-like" rhythm of the repetition of "For," alongside it's revolution around a single theme, which still manages to touch upon a wide variety of meaning. The author, Christopher Smart, was placed in an asylum for his outrageous public displays of religious fervor, displays which were intolerable for an eighteenth century audience. This selection focuses on his cat. The entire piece serves as a reinforcement for the opening lines: "For I will consider my cat Jeoffry / For he is the servant of the living God, duly and daily serving him." The poem continues with a series of sentences, each addressing the divinity of the cat, or explaining his relationship to the "living God." The cat earns this title of divinity through his natural goodness, "For he will not do destruction, if he is well-fed, neither will he spit without provocation." Smart seems to observe the daily routines of his cat, interpreting each as the actions of a truly pious being. He is physically able ("For the divine spirit comes about his body to sustain it in compleat cat"), yet compassionate ("For if he meets another cat he will kiss her in kindness"). He serves God ("For he knows that God is his savior"), and fights the powers of darkness ("For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life"). To Smart the cat seems the perfect religious being. It has no need to flaunt it's holiness, rather it serves God almost without consideration. To Smart, this would seem a gift, for his methods of praising and serving God were found distasteful, while the cat both celebrated and ignored.