To a cat

Cat! who hast pass'd thy grand cliacteric,

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 nick'd off - and though the fists

Of many a maid have given thee many a mail,

Still is that fur as soft as when the lists

In youth thou enter'dst on glass bottled wall.