Eliot has noticeably used refrains in almost
every poem in Old Possum’s Book, as it is particularly
associated with the structure of almost every song or
poem. In addition, the poems were written to Eliot’s
godchildren, according to Lake (2003), his study found
that children will pick up the chorus much sooner than
the verses of a song because it is easy for the children
to remember. Therefore some figures of speech have
been used to attract children. Similarly onomatopoeia
are used too because it commonly occurs in animal
noises, remarkable in “Of the Awefull Battle.”
Repetition and anaphora are also used to emphasize the
actions and to make the circumstances in which the
poems to be more exciting as in “The Old Gumbie
Cat,” and “The Rum Tum Tugger.” Antithesis,
chiasmus, rhetorical question, oxymoron, and
synecdoche are used to restate what is going on through
the poems, and to delineate the characters, such as in
“Mr. Mistoffelees,” “Old Deuteronomy,” and “The Addressing
of Cats.” He draws attention to the similarities
between feline and human personality traits by using
allusion, such as in “Bustopher Jones: The Cat about
Town” alludes to Beau Bummel, and “Macavity: The
Mystery Cat” alludes to Professor Moriarty. Allusion is
also made to Kipling’s poem “l’Envoi” in
“Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat” and to many
locations especially in “Growtiger’s Last Stand,” which
describes several places along the Thames. This may
relate to the previous study of Allie (2003), where
“reading each poem is comparable to visiting or
revisiting a new place. The poems can be interpreted as
literal or figurative.” That is for the readers to imagine
the picture of the places right in their mind and clearer
understand the situation in the scene. Other
comparisons like simile and metaphor are also used to
make the audience understand of the characters and
their actions as in “Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer,”
“Gus: The Theatre Cat,” “Macavity: The Mystery Cat,”
and “Of the Awefull Battle.”
In addition, figurative language is useful for
students to learn the English language. Here, the
teacher of English can apply the study for facilitating
their students. A song is an interesting choice of
teaching tools to motivate the students, as Dunaway
(2010) stated that “while students will say ‘I can’t read
poetry’ or ‘poetry doesn’t make sense,’ they never say
they can’t figure out a song, nevertheless, its original is
close to poetry.”