Concerning Cats in Poetry 



cat, for Lady Hesketh says, " One evening the cat 

 giving one of the hares a sound box on the ear, the 

 hare ran after her, and having caught her, punished 

 her by drumming on her back with her two feet 

 hard as drumsticks, till the creature would actually 

 have been killed had not Mrs. Unwin rescued her." 

 It might have been this very cat that was the inspi- 

 ration of Cowper's poem, "To a Retired Cat," 

 which had as a moral the familiar stanza : — 



" Beware of too sublime a sense 

 Of your own worth and consequence : 

 The man who dreams himself so great 

 And his importance of such weighty 

 That all around, in all that's done, 

 Must move and act for him alone, 

 Will learn in school of tribulation 

 The folly of his expectation." 



Baudelaire wrote : — 



" Come, beauty, rest upon my loving heart, 

 But cease thy paws' sharp-nailed play. 

 And let me peer into those eyes that dart 

 Mixed agate and metallic ray. 



" Grave scholars and mad lovers all admire 

 And love, and each alike, at his fiill tide 

 Those suave and puissant cats, the fireside's pride^ 

 Who like the sedentary life and glow of fire." 

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