Date:  Thu, 13 Jun 1996 17:02:18 EDT

From:  Terry Lynn Irons <t.irons[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MOREHEAD-ST.EDU>

Subject: Re: firecat



>

> John Serio, editor of The Wallace Stevens Journal, has asked for help in

> identifying the "firecat" in the following poem by Stevens. Does anyone

> know the term? He says that in a letter Stevens said that he had "actual

> animals" in mind.

>

>            Earthy Anecdote

>

> Every time the bucks went clattering

> Over Oklahoma

> A firecat bristled in the way.

>

> Wherever they went,

> They went clattering,

> Until they swerved

> In a swift, circular line

> To the right,

> Because of the firecat.

>

> Or until they swerved

> In a swift, circular line

> To the left,

> Because of the firecat.

>

> The bucks clattered.

> The firecat went leaping

> To the right, to the left,

> And

> Bristled in the way.

>

> Later, the firecat closed his bright eyes

> And slept.

>



An album by Cat Stevens (really his best work) is titled "Teaser and the

Firecat." The album cover has a picture of a boy and an orangish-red cat.

I don't recall any use of the term "firecat" in any of the songs, but I

don't have a copy now to listen to. But this is a later use of the word.





"Firecat" is also the name of a hunting bow and I think a kind of fighter

plane.





Stevens may have simply meant a reddish colored cat. Cats do "bristle."



Terry Irons







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Terry Lynn Irons    t.irons[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]morehead-st.edu

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