Explore "Verses on a Cat" by Percy Bysshe Shelley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
1.
A cat in distress, / Nothing more, nor less; / Good folks, I must faithfully tell ye, / As I am a sinner, / It waits for some dinner / To stuff out its own little belly.
2.
You would not easily guess / All the modes of distress / Which torture the tenants of earth; / And the various evils, / Which like so many devils, / Attend the poor souls from their birth.
3.
Some a living require, / And others desire / An old fellow out of the way; / And which is the best / I leave to be guessed, / For I cannot pretend to say.
4.
One wants society, / Another variety, / Others a tranquil life; / Some want food, / Others, as good, / Only want a wife.
5.
But this poor little cat / Only wanted a rat, / To stuff out its own little maw; / And it were as good / SOME people had such food, / To make them HOLD THEIR JAW!