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Cat Poems
QUOTES ABOUT CATS.
The Mind of God may be glimpsed in the eyes of a cat.
- Celtic saying.
A cat streaches from one end of my childhood to the other.
- Blaga Dimitrova.
If you want to be a psychological novelist & write about human beings, the best thing you can do is to keep a pair of cats.
- Aldous Huxley.
Women should set themselves forth attractively but innocently, like a cat. A cat is never a presentation, but an innocent happening.
- Alwin Nikolais (Fashion Art & Beauty)
He who rides the tiger can never dismount.
- Chinese Proverb.
What sort of philosphers are we who know absolutely nothing about the origin and destiny of cats?
- Henry David Thoreau.
A cat can be trusted to purr when she is pleased, which is more than can be said for human beings.
- William Ralph Inge (Rustic Moralist)
All cats are possessed of a proud spirit, & the surest way to forfeit the esteem of a cat is to treat him as an inferior being.
- Michael Joseph
(quoted in Ladies Home Journal)
If man could be crossed with a cat, it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat.
- Mark Twain.
I will admit to feeling
exceedingly proud when any cat has singled me out for
notice; for, of course, every cat is really the most
beautiful woman in the room.
That is part of their deadly fascination.
-E.V Lucas
(365 Days & One More)
I love cats because I enjoy my home; & little by little, they become its visible soul.
- Jean Cocteau 1889-1963.
We tie bright ribbons around their necks, & occasionally little tinkling bells,
& we affect to think that they are as sweet and vapid as the coy name 'kitty'
by which we call them would imply.
It is a curious illusion. For, purring beside our fireplaces & pattering along our
back fences, we have got a wild beast as uncowed & uncorrupted as any
under heaven.
- Alan Devoe
(Plain & Fancy Cats)
The city of cats & the city of men
exist one inside the other,
but they are not the same city.
- Italo Calvino.
Even overweight, cats instinctively know the cardinal rule: what fat, arrange yourself in slim poses.- John Weitz
Cats names are more for human benefit. They give one a certain degree more confidence that the animal belongs to you.
- Alan Ayckbourn
You will always be lucky if you know how to make friends with strange cats.
Proverb
Beware of those who dislike cats.
- Traditional
There are no ordinary cats.
- Colette 1873-1954
There's no dealing with a cat who knows you're awake.
- Brad Soloman.
Everything troubles you and the cat breaks your heart.
It's for her own good that the cat purrs.
- Irish Proverbs
A kitten is in the animal world what a rosebud is in a garden.
- Robert Southey.
To respect the cat is the beginning of the aesthetic sense.
- Anon.
The animal which the Egyptians worshipped as divine, which the Romans
venerated as a symbol of liberty... has displayed to all ages two closely blended characteristics
- courage and self-respect.
- Saki.
I love cats because they are so beautiful aesthetically. They are like sculpture walking around the house.
- Wanda Toscanini Horowitz.
The smallest feline is a masterpiece.
-Leonardo da Vinci.
A kitten is more amusing than half the people one is obliged to be with.
- Lady Sydney Morgan.
In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him.
-Dereke Bruce
If cats could talk, they wouldn't.
-Nan Porter
There are two means of refuge from the misery of life - music and cats.
-Albert Schweitzer
A catless writer is almost inconceivable. It's a perverse taste, really, since it would be easier to write with a herd of buffalo in the room than even one cat; they make nests in the notes and bite the end of the pen and walk on the typewriter keys.
-Barbara Holland
If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.
-Mark Twain
Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many ailments, but I never heard of one who suffered from insomnia.
-Joseph Wood Krutch
The cat could very well be man's best friend but would never stoop to admitting it.
-Doug Larson
There is something about the presence of a cat... that seems to take the bite out of being alone.
-Louis J. Camuti
As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat.
-Ellen Perry Berkeley
The problem with cats is that they get the exact same look on their face whether they see a moth or an axe-murderer.
-Paula Poundstone
Your cat will never threaten your popularity by barking at three in the morning. He won't attack the mailman or eat the drapes, although he may climb the drapes to see how the room looks from the ceiling.
-Helen Powers
When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime to her more than she is to me?
-Michel de Montaigne, Essays, 1580
I had been told that the training procedure with cats was difficult. It's not. Mine had me trained in two days.
-Bill Dana
If there is one spot of sun spilling onto the floor, a cat will find it and soak it up.
-Jean Asper McIntosh
No amount of time can erase the memory of a good cat, and no amount of masking tape can ever totally remove his fur from your couch.
-Leo Dworken
A dog, I have always said, is prose; a cat is a poem.
-Jean Burden
The cat is the only animal without visible means of support who still manages to find a living in the city.
-Carl van Vechten
It is difficult to obtain the friendship of a cat. It is a philosophical animal...one that does not place its affections thoughtlessly.
-Theophile Gautier
A cat has absolute honesty, human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings but a cat does not.-Ernest Hemingway
A cat improves the garden wall in sunshine, and the hearth in foul weather.
-Judith Merkle Riley
I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat.
-Edgar Allan Poe
Dogs come when they're called; cats take a message and get back to you later.
-Mary Bly
My cat speaks sign language with her tail.
-Robert A. Stern
If there were to be a universal sound depicting peace, I would surely vote for the purr.- Barbara L. Diamond
It doesn't do to be sentimental about cats; the best ones don't respect you for it.
- Susan Howatch
Some people say that cats are sneaky, evil, and cruel. True, and they have many other fine qualities as well.
-Missy Dizick
In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.
-Terry Pratchett
There are few things in life more heartwarming than to be welcomed by a cat.
-Tay Homoff
Purring would seem to be, in her case, an automatic safety valve device for dealing with happiness overflow.
-Monica Edwards
There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast.
-Author Unknown
Never wear anything that panics the cat.
- P. J. O'Rourke
To err is human; to purr is feline.
- Unkown
The best kind of alarm clock is the purring kind.
- Alexis F. Hope
Kittens can happen to anyone.
-Paul Gallico
The cat is the animal to whom the Creator gave the biggest eye, the softest fur, the most supremely delicate nostrils, a mobile ear, an unrivaled paw and a curved claw borrowed from the rose-tree.
- Colette
Prowling his own quiet backyard or asleep by the fire, he is still only a whisker away from the wilds.
-Jean Burden
I don't think it is so much the actual bath that most cats dislike; I think it's the fact that they have to spend a good part of the day putting their hair back in place.
-Debbie Peterson
To bathe a cat takes brute force, perseverance, courage of conviction - and a cat. The last ingredient is usually hardest to come by.
-Stephen Baker
Of all the toys available, none is better designed than the owner himself. A large multipurpose plaything, its parts can be made to move in almost any direction. It comes completely assembled, and it makes a sound when you jump on it.
-Stephen Baker
No matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.
-Abraham Lincoln
Ignorant people think it is the noise which fighting cats make that is so aggravating, but it ain't so; it is the sickening grammar that they use.
-Mark Twain
A cat is a puzzle for which there is no solution.
-Hazel Nicholson
Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet.
-Colette
Who among us hasn't envied a cat's ability to ignore the cares of daily life and to relax completely?
-Karen Brademeyer
A kitten is so flexible that she is almost double; the hind parts are equivalent to another kitten with which the forepart plays. She does not discover that her tail belongs to her until you tread on it.
-Henry David Thoreau
Cats are kindly masters, just so long as you remember your place.-Paul Gray
If a dog jumps into your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it is because your lap is warmer.
-Alfred North Whitehead
It's really the cat's house - we just pay the mortgage.
-Author Unknown
Some people own cats and go on to lead normal lives.
-Author Unknown
If I called her she would pretend not to hear, but would come a few moments later when it could appear that she had thought of doing so first.
-Arthur Weigall
The cat is above all things, a dramatist.
-Margaret Benson
A cat determined not to be found can fold itself up like a pocket handkerchief if it wants to.
-Louis J. Camuti
Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow.
-Jeff Valdez
If only cats grew into kittens.
-R. Stern
If there were to be a universal sound depicting peace, I would surely vote for the purr.
-Barbara L. Diamond
"Some cats is blind,
and stone-deaf some,
but ain't no cat
Wuz ever dumb."
- Anthony Henderson Euwer
"Cats do care. For example, they know
instinctively what time we have to be
at work in the morning and they wake
us up twenty minutes before the alarm
goes off." - Michael Nelson
"In my house you have to talk to cats
because, being ten of them, there are
a lot of important things you have to
say to them - like "Get off" and "Shut
up" and things like that." - Beryl Reid
"A cat is more intelligent than people
believe, and can be taught any crime."
- Mark Twain
"Some people say that cats are sneaky,
evil, and cruel. True, and they have
many other fine qualities as well."
- Missy Dizick
"As to Sagacity, I should say that his
judgement respecting the warmest place
and the softest cushion in a room is
infallable, his punctuality at meal times
is admirable, and his pertinacity in jump-
ing on people's shoulders till they give
him some of the best of what is going,
indicates great firmness." - Thomas Henry
Huxley
"Dogs eat. Cats dine." - Ann Taylor
"A cat cares for you only as a source of
food, security, and a place in the sun. Her
self-sufficiency is her charm." - Charles
Horton Cooley
Cat Poetry
"The cat has a nervous ear,
that turns this was and that.
And what the cat may hear,
is known but to the cat."
- David Morton
"It's just an old alley cat that has
followed us all the way home.
It hasn'ta star on its forehead, or a silky satiny
coat.
No proud tiger stripes, no dainty
tread, no elegant velvet throat.
It's a splotchy, blotchy city cat, not a pretty
cat, a rough little bag of old bones.
'Beauty,' we shall call you. 'Beauty'
come in."- Eve Merriam
Worshipped in state at Pharoh's court...
From Thames to Nile, from gutter to throne,
Ever we hold our souls our own.
Comfort and penury, hopes and fears,
Are the toys of time and the wreck of years,
But freedom the gift of eternity.
- Sir Frederick PollockTRUE
When
the green eyes
of a cat
look deep into
you
you know
that
whatever it is
they are saying
is
true.
- Lilian Moore (I Feel the Same Way)
How cunningly a cat sleeps,
Sleeps in its whole heft & its paws,
Sleeps with its cruel claws
And predatory blood
Sleeps with all its rings
Blazing in circles
To shape the geology
Of its sand-coloured tail.
I want to sleep as a cat sleeps,
Furred over in time,
With flint in its tongue
And its dry sex afire,
Talking to nobody,
Stretching my length on the length
Of the world, over rooftops & clay,
Single-hearted in purpose
To hunt down rats of a dream
I've seen a cat shimmer
While sleeping...
- Pablo Neruda
(Pablo Neruda Five Decades- A Selection)Paws for Thought.
Wild on woodland ways your sires
Flashed like fires;
Fair as flame and fierce and fleet
As with wings on wingless feet
Shone and sprang your mother, free,
Bright and brave as wind or sea.
Free and proud and glad as they,
Here today
Rests or roams their radiant child,
Vanquished not, but reconciled,
Free from curb of aught above
Save the lovely curb of love.
- Algernon Charles Swinburne.
Cats, no less liquid than their shadows,
offer no angles to the wind.
They slip, diminished; neat, through loopholes
Less than themselves;will not be pinned
To rules or routes for journeys; counter
Attack with non-resistance; twist
Enticing through the curving fingers
And leave an angered, empty fist.
They wait, obsequious as darkness,
Quick to retire, quick to return;
Admit no aims or ethics; flatter
With reservations; will not learn
To answer to their names; are seldom
Truely owned till shot & skinned.
Cats, no less liquid than their shadows,
Offer no angles to the wind.
- A.S.J Tessimond 1902-1962
An Elegy on the Death of Dr Johnson's Favourite CatLet not the honest muse disdain
For Hodge to wake the plaintive strain.
Shall poets prostitute their lays
In offering venal Statesmen praise;
By them shall flowers Parnassian bloom
Around the tyrant's gaudy tomb;
And shall not Hodge's memory claim
Of innocence the candid fame;
Shall not his worth a poem fill,
Who never thought, nor uttered ill;
Who by his manner when caressed
Warmly his gratitude expressed;
And never failed his thanks to purr
Whene'er he stroaked his fable furr?
The general conduct if we trace
Of our articulating race,
Hodge's, example we shall find
A keen reproof of human kind.
He lived in town, yet ne'er got drunk,
Nor spent one farthing on a punk;
He never filched a single groat,
Nor bilked a taylor of a coat;
His garb when first he drew his breath
His dress through life, his shroud in death.
Of human speech to have the power,
To move on two legs, not on four;
To view with unobstructed eye
The verdant field, the azure sky
Favoured by luxury to wear
The velvet gown, the golden glare -
--If honour from these gifts we claim,
Chartres had too severe a fame.
But wouldst though, son of Adam, learn
Praise from thy noblest powers to earn;
Dost thou, with generous pride aspire
Thy nature's glory to acquire?
Then in thy life exert the man,
With moral deed adorn the span;
Let virtue in they bosom lodge;
Or wish thou hadst been born a Hodge.
CLEOPATRA.
WE’VE called our young puss Cleopatra;
’Twas grandpa who named her like that.
He says it means “fond of good living”—
A queer enough name for a cat!
She leads the most lovely existence,
And one which appears to enchant;
Asleep in the sun like a snow-flake
That tries to get melted and can’t;
Or now and then languidly strolling
Through plots of the garden, to steal
On innocent grasshoppers, crunching
Her cruel and murderous meal!
Or lapping from out of her saucer—
The dainty and delicate elf!—
With appetite spoiled in the garden,
New milk that’s as white as herself.
Dear, dear! could we only change places,
This do-nothing pussy and I,
You’d think it hard work, Cleopatra,
To live, as the moments went by.
Ah! how would you relish, I wonder,
To sit in a school-room for hours?
You’d find it less pleasant, I fancy,
Than murdering bugs in the flowers.
Edgar Fawcett.
PUSSY'S KITTEN (?).
Once a tiny little rabbit strayed from home away;
Far from woodland haunts she wandered, little rabbit gray.
Our old Tabby cat, whilst sitting at the kitchen door,
Thought she saw her long-lost kitten home returned once more.
Gave a pounce, and quickly caught it, with a happy mew,
Ere the frightened little wanderer quite knew what to do.
Gently Tabby brought her treasure to the old door-mat,
Purred, and rubbed and licked and smoothed it—motherly old cat!
But what puzzled pussy truly, and aroused her fears,
Was the length to which had grown her kitten's once small ears.
Most amazing, most alarming, was that sight to her;
Green and round her eyes were swelling, stiff and straight her fur.
"Poor wee kitty! what a pity you're deformed!" thought she;
"Surely this has somehow happened since you went from me.
But you're welcome home, my kitten; mother's love is strong,
Though I will confess I wish your ears were not so long."
So the tiny little rabbit grew contented quite,
And our visitors like to call and see the pretty sight
Of nice old Tabby playing with her rabbit-kitty gray;
And she doesn't dream of her mistake, although, the truth to say,
Her own true kitten went the road that many kittys go;
For John the coachman took it to the horse-pond just below.
But I think it is most cruel to drown a little cat;
And I trust all girls and boys will have too much heart for that.- from Harper's Young People, February 3, 1880
PUSS AND HER THREE KITTENS.
Our old cat has kittens three;
What do you think their names should be?
One is a tabby with emerald eyes,
And a tail that's long and slender;
But into a temper she quickly flies,
If you ever by chance offend her.
I think we shall call her this—
I think we shall call her that;
Now, don't you fancy "Pepper-pot"
A nice name for a cat?
One is black, with a frill of white,
And her feet are all white fur, too;
If you stroke her, she carries her tail upright,
And quickly begins to purr, too.
I think we shall call her this—
I think we shall call her that;
Now, don't you fancy "Sootikin"
A nice name for a cat?
One is a tortoise-shell, yellow and black,
With a lot of white about him:
If you tease him, at once he sets up his back:
He's a quarrelsome Tom, ne'er doubt him!
I think we shall call him this—
I think we shall call him that;
Now, don't you fancy "Scratchaway"
A nice name for a cat?
Our old cat has kittens three,
And I fancy these their names will be:
"Pepper-pot," "Sootikin," "Scratchaway,"—there!
Were there ever kittens with these to compare?
And we call the old mother—now, what do you think?
"Tabitha Longclaws Tiddleywink."- The Nursery, April 1877, Vol. XXI. No. 4
A MEW FROM PUSSY.
IN ANSWER TO "A SQUEAK."
I am only the lazy old cat
That sleeps upon somebody's mat:
I sit in the sunshine,
And lick my soft paws,
With one eye on mousie,
And one on my claws.
Little mouse, little mouse! look out how you boast!
Of just such as you I have eaten a host!
I'm a much smarter cat than you seem to suppose;
I have very keen eyes, and, oh—such a nose!
I'm an innocent looking cat;
I am well aware of that:
I squint up my eyes,
And play with the flies,
But underneath I am wondrous wise:
I know where your nest is,
And just where you hide
When you have been thieving,
And fear you'll be spied.
I saw your small tracks all over the meal;
And I saw your tail, and I heard you squeal
When grandmamma's broom
Nearly sealed your doom,
And you went whisking out of the room.
I am only a lazy old cat:
I care not much for a rat;
But a nice tender mouse
About in the house
Might prove a temptation too great,
Should I be in a hungry state.
Little mouse, little mouse! Beware, beware!
Some time, when you think not, I shall be there,
And you'll not only look at,
But feel of, my paws;
And, the first thing you know,
I'll be licking my jaws,
And washing my face with an innocent air,
And mousie will be—oh, where? oh, where?-The Nursery, March 1877, Vol. XXI. No. 3
SONG OF THE CAT.
Words by A. Lloyd. Music by T. Crampton1. The cat and her kittens recline in the sun,
Mew! mew! mew!
They're fond of their food and they're fond of their fun;
Mew! mew! mew!
Their old mother says they must sit in a row,
The biggest is Jack and the little one Joe,
And now altogether they make the place ring,
With the one song they know and the chorus they sing:
Mew! mew! mew! . . .
Mew! mew! mew!
2. My dear little kittens when you are well grown,
Mew! mew! mew!
Some day you will each have a home of your own;
Mew! mew! mew!
You'll catch all the mice and you'll kill all the rats,
And grow up, I hope, both respectable cats,
Don't get in the cupboard, nor kill the poor lark,
Keep away from big dogs and get home before dark;
Mew! mew! mew! . . .
Mew! mew! mew!
3. The kittens they listen'd and said they'd be good,
Mew! mew! mew!
And not kill the birds nor destroy the young brood!
Mew! mew! mew!
They lov'd their good mother, and tho't 'twould be nice,
To grow strong and hearty and catch and kill mice.
She wash'd all their faces and put them to bed,
And now what do you think was the last thing they said;
Mew! mew! mew! . . .
Mew! mew! mew!- from The Nursery, March 1877, Vol. XXI. No. 3
DON'T YOU LIKE MY CAT?
I like my cat, I like him well,
As all the house may see
I like him for himself, and not
Because the cat likes me.
He counts his only work in life,
To flourish and be fat;
And this he does with all his might;—
Of course, I like my cat.
His eyes shine out beneath his brows,
As eyes have rarely shone;
His beauty is the grandest thing
That ever cat put on.
He wears a paw of wondrous bulk,
With secret claws to match,
And puts a charm in all its play,
The pat, the box, the scratch.
I have not heard how cats are made
Within their furry veil,
But rather fancy Tippo's thoughts
Lie chiefly in his tail.
For while in every other part
His portly person sleeps,
That bushy tail, with steady wave,
A ceaseless vigil keeps.
- from Baby Chatterbox, by Anonymous
