The Symbolism of Cats and the Moon in the Works of W. B. Yeats and T. S. Eliot.

The symbolism of cats and the moon in the works of W. B. Yeats and T. S. Eliot may vary according to scholars. For Yeats, the moon goes beyond just the appearance of the moon in the sky and is closely related to his religious and philosophical ideas. Not only was Yeats interested in astrology, but also he observed the moon’s phase change and listed characters appropriate for the phase. The purpose of this paper is to explore symbolic meanings through the analysis of Yeats’s poems and his play, The Cat and the Moon. Unlike the poem, “The Cat and the Moon” which Yeats wrote in 1917, Eliot wrote a guide to become a wise cat entitled Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats in 1939. The book shows Eliot’s wit to describe in detail the relationship between cats and humans. In his poems, “The Ad-dressing of Cats” and “Macavity: The Mysterious Cat,” Eliot connects the behavior and personality of cats with that of humans, and in his poem, “Rhapsody on a Windy Night,” he connects the moon with memory and describes the moon as a being that illuminates the world with her smile.