Cat Poems for Poet's Day #felinefriday

 Happy Feline Friday!

In honour of Poet's Day we thought we'd share classic poems about cats.

😻

EMILY DICKINSON - She sights a Bird - She Chuckles

She sights a Bird-she chuckles-

She flattens-then she crawls-

She runs without the look of feet-

Her eyes increase to Balls.

W. B. YEATS - The Cat and The Moon

HE cat went here and there

And the moon spun round like a top,

And the nearest kin of the moon,

The creeping cat, looked up.

Black Minnaloushe stared at the moon,

For, wander and wail as he would,

The pure cold light in the sky

Troubled his animal blood.

Minnaloushe runs in the grass

Lifting his delicate feet.

Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance?

When two close kindred meet,

What better than call a dance?

Maybe the moon may learn,

Tired of that courtly fashion,

A new dance turn.

Minnaloushe creeps through the grass

From moonlit place to place,

The sacred moon overhead

Has taken a new phase.

Does Minnaloushe know that his pupils

Will pass from change to change,

And that from round to crescent,

From crescent to round they range?

Minnaloushe creeps through the grass

Alone, important and wise,

And lifts to the changing moon

His changing eyes.

JOHN KEATS - To Mrs. Reynold's Cat

Cat! who hast past 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 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.

T.S. ELIOT - The Naming of Cats

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,

It isn't just one of your holiday games;

You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter

When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.

First of all, there's the name that the family use daily,

Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,

Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey--

All of them sensible everyday names.

There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,

Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:

Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter--

But all of them sensible everyday names.

But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular,

A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,

Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,

Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?

Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,

Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,

Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum-

Names that never belong to more than one cat.

But above and beyond there's still one name left over,

And that is the name that you never will guess;

The name that no human research can discover--

But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.

When you notice a cat in profound meditation,

The reason, I tell you, is always the same:

His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation

Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:

His ineffable effable

Effanineffable

Deep and inscrutable singular Name.

WILLIAM BLAKE - The Tyger

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, 

In the forests of the night; 

What immortal hand or eye, 

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies. 

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain, 

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp, 

Dare its deadly terrors clasp! 

When the stars threw down their spears 

And water'd heaven with their tears: 

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright, 

In the forests of the night: 

What immortal hand or eye,

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

If you like poetry and you're into animal rights check out Mum Marie's latest poem on her blog 

Friendly Fill-Ins with 15andMeowing and Four-Legged Furballs

1. I feel like ________________.

2.  I wish I could exchange _____________ for _____________________.

3. It’s time for me to _________.

4. _________ is really tempting these days.

MARIE

1. I feel like life has passed me by.

2.  I wish I could exchange my sensitivity for being less sensitive. I really can't handle it sometimes. Being an empath, I get overwhelmed with not just my own feelings but almost everyone else's.

3. It’s time for me to eat an ice cream 

4. Nothing is really tempting these days. Just chocolate - I can't drink alcohol anymore as I find that it's better for me to abstain as I have such an addictive personality. I don't want to go back to my younger heavy drinking days. From the age of 27-32 I was borderline alcoholic. 

ATHENA

1. I feel like eating.

2. I wish I could exchange nothing. I'm happy as I am.

3. It’s time for me to nap.

4. Having a lick of Mum's ice cream is really tempting these days. If she is eating vanilla ice cream she might let me lick some off of her finger. But if it's chocolate she won't give me any because it can be harmful to cats. 

Friendly Fill-Ins - sponsored by 15andmeowing and Four-Legged Furballs.

Feline Friday is sponsored by Comedy Plus

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