Feline Repentance

I have to admit the section of Jubilant Agno we read today was thoroughly amusing. I have never heard of an everyday event discussed in such an amusing and holy way. By using a religious form and a Biblical structure to describe his cat’s everyday habits Smart is creating an interesting juxtaposition. This text brings up the interesting question of whether a text is determined by its form or its content. The form is religious and not to be laughed at but the content is amusing and trivial. So which is more influential to the text?

Though the poem is done very formally with end stops and concise statements of Godly reverence; the topic is so absurd. The idea of a cat praying to God almost makes the text laughable. The only surprising thing about this text is that I can’t tell if it was written as a parody of religious texts or if he really believed this. His biography leads me to believe that he did not write this as a joke. What do you think? Was Smart trying to make fun of the religious, structured writing or did he really find holy repentance in the actions of his cat?