Keats
To Mrs. Reynold's Cat
Cat! who hast past thy Grand Climateric,
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 weezy Asthma - and for all 10
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.
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Written on 16 January 1818. A parody of Milton's sonnets, particurarly those addressed to the Parlamentarian leaders, and beginning "Fairfax, Cromwell, and Vane". Keats has several amusing passages about cats in his letters.
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