Mort Aux Chats- Peter Porter

The Poem-

There will be no more cats.

Peter Porter

Cats spread infection,

Cats pollute the air,

Cats consume seven times

their own weight in food a week,

Cats were worshipped in

decadent societies (Egypt

and Ancient Rome); the Greeks

had no use for cats. Cats

sit down to pee (our scientists

have proved it). The copulation

of cats is harrowing; they

are unbearably fond of the moon.

Perhaps they are all right in

their own country but their

traditions are alien to ours.

Cats smell, they can't help it,

you notice it going upstairs.

Cats watch too much television,

they can sleep through storms,

they stabbed us in the back

last time. There have never been

any great artists who were cats.

They don't deserve a capital C

except at the beginning of a sentence.

I blame my headaches and my

plants dying on cats.

Our district is full of them,

property values are falling.

When I dream of God I see

a Massacre of Cats. Why

should they insist on their own

language and religion, who

needs to purr to make his point?

Death to all cats! The Rule

of Dogs shall last a thousand years!

Summary-

“Mort Aux Chats” by Peter Porter is a rhetorical monologue where the poet tries to persuade the authors that “cats” are undesirable creatures. It is a political poem and uses a persuasive tone and when considered in depth, the term “cats” actually refers to a human race that a poet detests or dislikes. “Mort Aux Chats” meaning “Death to All Cats” is actually a prejudice poem and the word cat might refer to a number of denominations, all of which are interestingly those races which the Whites considered inferior to their own and uncivilised. Peter Porter has very cleverly kept his point in a very passive tone and thus the reader is never sure if the views of the writer are actually racist or is it just the tone of the poem.

The poem begins with a line saying-- Death to All Cats-- perhaps hinting the strongly negative views that the poet has for that particular race of men. He considers them so useless and irritating that he says that all of them must die at once. The poet goes on to exemplify his point saying that cats spread infections, pollute the air with their stink, eat seven times their weight in a day, and were worshiped in morally and culturally declined societies like Egypt and Rome. Societies whose foundations were based on Science like Greeks had no use for cats. While the points presented here by the author are factual and scientific, they have a hidden meaning of their own. The poet tells us the reason why he hates that race saying they are uncilvilised and spread infections, pollute the environment, eat in an unhygienic way, and are only considered important in societies that are backward and unscientific. Though the hidden meaning might clearly refer to an allusion to the Blacks or the Jews, we have no means of predicting the same. The poet goes on to say that cats sit down to pee, which if at all referred to a race shows a gross level of uncivilised behaviour. He says that mating of cats is a distressful sight, and they are unbearably fond of moon, another gross and idiotic behaviour.

The poet when saying that they might be right in their own country, but their tradition is alien to ours, perhaps hints, that he is writing for a race of humans that his race, the Whites, finds alien to theirs in terms of tradition and civilisation, more clearly than anywhere else in the entire poem. He says that though they might be important and justified in their activities in their own country, they have no use in his country. He further says that cats smell and they themselves can’t help it. They watch too much television and can sleep through storms. Again, through factual behaviour of cats, the poet tries to point the inferiority of the other race by terming them as lazy and lackadaisical, generally laid back in everything they do. They continue this behaviour even in times of turmoil.

The next line that the poet says--“they stabbed us in the back last time”-- is a very clear allusion to the Jews and the views presented here by the poet are strongly Nazi that it was because of the treachery of the Jews that they lost World War II. The poet even goes on to say that there have never been any great artist belonging to this race and that their contribution to the civilization of today have been so nominal and unproductive that they don’t deserve a even a capital letter at the beginning of the name of their race (here referred to as C for Cats) except at the beginning of sentences which makes it as common a word as anything else. The poet says that these cats are the reason behind his headache and the death of his plants, perhaps referring to the social decay of the Modern World. They are nothing more than a headache to the World. The poet even goes on to say that when he dreams of God, he sees a massacre of cats. These are the words of Adolf Hitler himself referred to the Jews wherein he justified the extermination of six million Jews during the Holocaust. The poet then says that they have no right to claim for their own religion and language been given a status parallel to his own, because their language is as insignificant as the purr of a cat. He concludes by proclaiming Death to All Cats yet again and saying that the rule of dogs, a race far more superior and intelligent than cats, perhaps referring to his own race, shall rule for a thousand years.

The poem has a strongly racist inner meaning wrapped around in light-hearted and sarcastic humour, therefore rendering the actual meaning of the poem rather invisible and saves the poet from explicitly proclaiming himself as a racist.