This page although titled Cat Poems is really about cat’s presence in the literature in general. Actually the more I research this field the more evidence I find of how important the delicate, purring companions were to the authors down the centuries. There’s hardly anything more powerful then words when you think about it. Christianity even teaches that the Word is one of the forms of God’s eternal being. Even the visual image can’t make quite the same impact as a few words expertly put together.
	In the dark Middle Ages full of absurd superstitions cat’s were too despised to make it into the books in any respectful manner. Their triumphant march through the literature began with the arrival of the Renaissance in 14th century. Apparently such great poets as Dante Alighieri and Francesco Petrarca spoke highly of cats in their works.
From 17th century onwards cats started appearing as the fictional characters. I was delighted to learn that Lope de Vega, the Spanish poet whom I love since my childhood for his witty and humorous plays such as The Dog in the Manger also wrote a cat poetry or rather the poem about two tom cats, Marramaquiz and Micifuz, fighting for the affections of a lady cat Zapaquilda (gorgeous names, isn’t it?) It’s called "La Gatomaquia" and apparently it is a parody of an epic poem. I really would like to read that. Off course we all know Charles Perrault fairy tales from the early childhood and the Puss-in-Boots is a jewel in his crown. Distinguished German writer E.T.A Hoffman, one of whose fairy tales became the story line for Tchaikovskiy’s Nutcracker ballet, also wrote a novel entitled The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr about the highly intelligent and educated male cat. English poet John Keats wrote a sonnet “To Mrs. Reynold’s Cat”. Swiss poet Gottfried Keller wrote an exciting tale of Spiegel the Cat who bravely escaped the evil wizard and the prospect of becoming his fury hat. Famous decadent Frenchman Baudelaire has a poem simply called The Cat and Guy de Maupassant has one entitled About the Cat. Well, why am I still talking about it! Just have a look for yourself at some of those excellent cat poems and prose:

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