Cat!

Cat! who hast past thy grand climacteric,

How many mice and rats hast in thy days

Destroy'd? -- how many tit bits stolen? Gaze

With those bright languid segments green and prick

Those velvet ears -- but pr'ythee do not stick

Thy latent talons in me -- and upraise

Thy gentle mew -- and tell me all thy frays

Of fish and mice, and rats and tender chick.

Nay, look not down, nor lick thy dainty wrists --

For all the wheezy asthma, -- and for all

Thy tail's tip is nicked off -- and though the fists

Of many a maid have given thee many a maul,

Still is that fur as soft as when the lists

In youth thou enter'dst on glass-bottled wall.