Sonnet To Mrs. Reynolds's Cat

by John Keats

    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 thy wheezy asthma, and for all
    Thy tail's tip is nick'd 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'dest on glass bottled wall.