Concerning Cats in Poetry 



affair is a little better determined, you will excuse me 

 if I do not cry, ' Tempus inane peto, requiem, spati- 

 umque doloris.' " 



He closes the letter by saying, "There's a poem 

 for you ; it is rather too long for an epitaph." And 

 then the familiar — 



" ' Twas on a lofty vase's side, 



Where China's gayest art had dy'd 



The azure flowers that blow : 

 Demurest of the tabby kind, 

 The pensive Selima, reclined, 



Gazed on the lake below." 



Wordsworth's " Kitten and the Falling Leaves," is 

 in the high, moralizing style. 



" That way look, my Infant, lo I 

 What a pretty baby show. 

 See the kitten on the wall. 

 Sporting with the leaves that fall, 



" But the kitten, how she starts. 

 Crouches, stretches, paws, and darts 

 First at one and then its fellow. 

 Just as light and just as yellow : 

 There are many now — now one. 

 Now they stop, and there are none. 

 What intentness of desire 

 In her upward eye of fire! 

 With a tiger-leap halfway 

 Now she meets the coming prey, 



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