A.A. Milne & Pinkle Purr

I think most of us are familiar with A.A. Milne’s wonderful poems about King John’s Christmas and Bad Sir Brian Botany, or a boy sitting on a stair that is not at the bottom and not at the top, or Vespers (a poem that Christopher Robin Milne came to utterly detest), but a less familiar one was published in Milne’s 1927 volume Now We Are Six. This poem (surprise, surprise) features a cat, or rather two cats. It was originally illustrated by E.H. Shepard.

Tattoo was the mother of Pinkle Purr,
A little black nothing of feet and fur;
And by-and-by, when his eyes came through,
He saw his mother, the big Tattoo.
And all that he learned he learned from her.
“I’ll ask my mother,” says Pinkle Purr.

Tattoo was the mother of Pinkle Purr,
A ridiculous kitten with silky fur.
And little black Pinkle grew and grew
Till he got as big as the big Tattoo.
And all that he did he did with her.
“Two friends together,” says Pinkle Purr.

Tattoo was the mother of Pinkle Purr,
An adventurous cat in a coat of fur.
And whenever he thought of a thing to do,
He didn’t much bother about Tattoo,
For he knows it’s nothing to do with her,
So “See you later,” says Pinkle Purr.

Tattoo is the mother of Pinkle Purr,
An enormous leopard with coal-black fur.
A little brown kitten that’s nearly new
Is now playing games with its big Tattoo…
And Pink looks lazily down at her:
“Dear little Tat,” says Pinkle Purr.

It’s a poem about the changing relationship of a mother cat, Tattoo, and her kitten, Pinkle Purr. He changes from a helpless kitten, needing his mother for everything, to a large and independent cat who sets off exploring without thinking of his mother. And then Tattoo becomes a parent himself.

On the surface, this is a poem about cats, but in reality it reflects the experience of a child growing into his or her own person, finding independence and viewing parents in different ways along the way. There’s a fabulous Mark Twain quote that reflects this: “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”

The poem has a simple, repetitive and rhythmic structure which is almost hypnotic. It’s an easy poem for young readers to memorise.

You can listen to a version set to music here: