Featuring cherita!


June 5, 2009

Poetry Friday--To a Cat


To a Cat

by Algernon Charles Swinburne

I
Stately, kindly, lordly friend,
          Condescend
Here to sit by me, and turn
Glorious eyes that smile and burn,
Golden eyes, love's lustrous meed,
On the golden page I read.

All your wondrous wealth of hair,
          Dark and fair,
Silken-shaggy, soft and bright
As the clouds and beams of night,
Pays my reverent hand's caress
Back with friendlier gentleness.

Dogs may fawn on all and some
          As they come;
You, a friend of loftier mind,
Answer friends alone in kind.
Just your foot upon my hand
Softly bids it understand.

The poem goes on, but this first part is a straight-forward tribute to my favorite animal. "Just your foot upon my hand/Softly bids it understand." Ah, lovely.

You can read the complete poem here.

The Poetry Friday Round-Up is at Write Read Believe. Check out this week's entries and then go back to last week for Sara's analysis of a Wallace Stevens poem. She said, "Should we always post poems we love on Poetry Friday? Or go a little mad and share something confounding every once in a while? You know my answer." I do, and I concur, but as a whole, most children's writers are too gosh-darn nice to ruffle anyone's feathers!

4 comments:

  1. Meow!! Thanks for the cat poem. :)

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  2. Oh, I have to share this with the cat-adoring members of my family: my daughter, my sister, and my mother-in-law. (I like cats too, but sadly, I'm allergic, so I have to admire them from afar.)

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  3. Sara, I'm allergic, too, but I'm owned by two cats and wouldn't think of not having these lovely companions! It was difficult to breathe for a while, but everything seems to be under control now. I wouldn't, though, suggest following in my footsteps! The photo shows Skippy (front) and Smudge. Skippy will turn 1 sometime this month. She is a horse, quite clumsy, and is currently acting like a teen. Smudge is about 15, weighs about 4 1/2 pounds, and is as graceful as an angel. Probably more information than anyone wanted to know!

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