Talk:The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles/@comment-3410511-20200420175636/@comment-3182821-20200420185739

I think that's over-thinking it! I read it as class warfare, between the pampered pets and the working pollicles. The pampered pets are exotic, foreign breeds, but I don't think that's particularly the point so much as they sit around on velvet cushions all day and never earn their keep. These poems were written for children, and while T S Eliot may well have intended allusions to bigger events to engage the parents, his focus was on light entertainment.

Growltiger's great enemy being the Siamese, I think is more tapping into collective conscious, that if you were to name an exotic cat breed, Siamese are the first to come to mind. Especially in the early 20th century, it's either Siamese or Persian or just - mog. Every child reading the poem will understand "Siamese" = "Exotic cat from far, far away". Growltiger must have been a fearsome evil-doer to have enemies from the other side of the world!