TO A CAT
by: Hartley Coleridge (1796-1849)
- ELLY, methinks,
'twixt thee and me
- There is a kind of sympathy;
- And could we interchange our nature, --
- If I were cat, thou human creature, --
- I should, like thee, be no great mouser,
- And thou, like me, no great composer;
- For, like thy plaintive mews, my muse
- With villainous whine doth fate abuse,
- Because it hath not made me sleek
- As golden down on Cupid's cheek;
- And yet thou canst upon the rug lie,
- Stretch'd out like snail, or curl'd up snugly,
- As if thou wert not lean or ugly;
- And I, who in poetic flights
- Sometimes complain of sleepless nights,
- Regardless of the sun in heaven,
- Am apt to doze till past eleven, --
- The world would just the same go round
- If I were hang'd and thou wert drown'd;
- There is one difference, 'tis true, --
- Thou dost not know it, and I do.
"To a Cat" is reprinted
from Poems. Hartley Coleridge. London: Moxon, 1851. |
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