Ode On The Death Of A Favourite Cat Drowned In A Tub Of Gold Fishes
Twas
on
a
lofty
vase's
side,
Where
China's
gayest
art
had
dyed
The
azure
flowers
that
blow;
Demurest
of
the
tabby
kind,
The
pensive
Selima,
reclined,
Gazed
on
the
lake
below.
Her
conscious
tail
her
joy
declared;
The
fair
round
face,
the
snowy
beard,
The
velvet
of
her
paws,
Her
coat,
that
with
the
tortoise
vies,
Her
ears
of
jet,
and
emerald
eyes,
She
saw;
and
purred
applause.
Still
had
she
gazed;
but
'midst
the
tide
Two
angel
forms
were
seen
to
glide,
The
genii
of
the
stream:
Their
scaly
armor's
Tyrian
hue
Through
richest
purple
to
the
view
Betrayed
a
golden
gleam.
The
hapless
nymph
with
wonder
saw:
A
whisker
first
and
then
a
claw,
With
many
an
ardent
wish,
She
stretched
in
vain
to
reach
the
prize.
What
female
heart
can
gold
despise?
What
cat's
averse
to
fish?
Presumptuous
maid!
with
looks
intent
Again
she
stretched,
again
she
bent,
Nor
knew
the
gulf
between.
Thomas Gray
Thomas Gray (born Dec. 26, 1716, London—died July 30, 1771, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Eng.) English poet whose “An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard” is one of the best known of English lyric poems. Although his literary output was slight, he was the dominant poetic figure in the mid-18th century and a precursor of the Romantic movement.