It's two years today since my much loved cat Abby died. So, here's a sonnet by Keats about Mrs Reynolds' Cat. Abby wasn't really very much like this cat who seems to have spent his life killing mice & getting into fights but it's an affectionate tribute & that's what's important. Abby was a timid cat, more likely to spend her days sleeping in her favourite spots in the garden, waiting for me to sit down so she could jump on my lap & being fed the finest tidbits of chicken & fish on offer.
Next week, some more Keats with a Barbara Pym connection as Barbara Pym Reading Week gets underway.
Cat! who hast passed thy grand climacteric,
How many mice and rats hast in thy days
Destroyed? How many tit-bits stolen? Gaze
With those bright languid segments green, and prick
Those velvet ears - but prithee do not stick
Thy latent talons in me, and up-raise
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 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 enteredst on glass-bottled wall.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
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They're gone, but they never leave us, do they? I think about and miss all my missing pet friends and, thanks to your sharing Abby with us, I miss her, too. Pet Lucky and Phoebe and tell them how glad you are they found you or you found them. Keats captured his cat perfectly.
ReplyDeleteI miss my friend's cats as well! A friend's much loved cat died last month at the age of 14 but she'd had a wonderful life so I couldn't be too sad.
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