To a Cat

by John Keats

Cat! who has 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 prythee do not stick

Thy latent talons in me - 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 the 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 thy fur as when the lists

In youth thou enter'dst on glass-bottled wall.