To a Cat + 

Cat! who hast pass’d thy grand climacteric, + 

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 has given thee many a maul, + 

Still is that fur as soft as when the lists + 

In youth thou enter’dst on glass-bottled wall. + 