Page 46 - Poetry-Animals

Ode to Kittenhood

Kitten mine! how full thy face is
Of the most perplexing graces.
Wingless butterfly thou art,
Lightest throb on Nature’s heart.
When I o’er thy sweetness rave,
Or of thee affection crave,
Thou dost give a toss of scorn,
Followed by a—rosy yawn!
I could censure if I would
Such coy pranks of kittenhood!

Life is a chromatic scale
Of scampers after mouse and tail.
And thy gladness never wavers,
Breaking out in sharps and quavers.
For thy days together flow
One perpetual Allegro!
Oh! that Music’s measure could
But describe thy kittenhood!

Then that sidelong pirouette,
Dancer never rivaled yet!
And my poet’s tongue must fail
To convey that witching tail.
Now a note of exclamation!
Now a curved interrogation
Point, to indicate each mood
Of a changeful kittenhood.

What a serpentine emotion
Thrills thee at some novel notion;
Head to tail there runs that shiver
In an undulating quiver.
Then to roll—a ball of fur
With a liquid, crooning purr.
Life to thee is all so good,
Optimist of kittenhood!

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