For he rolls upon prank to work it in. All the character of this cat is revealed here, not just Cat. The insistence of the hard consonants make sure that the reader knows how diligently this cat is going about rolling. The splendor of the poem’s litany is in how it builds to its diminuendo, the final Cat as cat. This mouse is caught.

Terese, I've been poking around for meanings of "prank" in the OED, disappointed to find just meanings under the categories of "fold" and "jape." Something else going on in Smart's use of it, seemingly-- or not? Do you know? (Or does anyone?)

I always imagined there was a play on prank/plank going on here (think of the way that some East Asians struggle to distinguish between the r and l sounds in English). In the larger context, we are in the midst of Jeoffery's morning ritual. He has just leaped to catch the musk (which I always took to be a scent or perfume, Jeoffry's answer to incense, making the action akin to an act of spiritual cleansing, although even here multiple meanings open up [musk = muskrat?]). He is now rubbing his body against some surface, such as planks of wood, to work the perfume in. The play on prank/plank would also suggest the generally mischievious quality of the action and cats in general, as well as the lesser known usage of prank as a verb meaning to show oneself off. But I'm just speculating.

Well, one answer to such things is "all of the above."

For some reason, I keep wondering if "prank" is an 18th-century term for something else . . .

I saw the cat rolling itself in some dreadful stink (prank--it sounds like Old English slang for musk, doesn't it?) that cats (and dogs) can't resist, working it into their fur.

Exactly, Terese. But I can't find any reference source for that notion of the word. Your "sounds like" sense and mine are similar.

Robert, I have in front of me the 5th edition of The Norton Anthology of Poetry. The editor's note says that "upon prank" means "in display or jest." What I like about that explanation is that it takes into account the word "upon," helping me a great deal with the grammar.

Yop, I have read that same note MaryAnn. And that is probably it, and it does clarify an unfamiliar use of "upon." But like Terese Svoboda I keep thinking that maybe there is some lost slang meaning of "prank" for what is being rubbed in by Jeoffry. One of those sometimes-mistaken tingles, not important . . .