Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat
by Thomas Gray (1748) — a poem card from Justes Mots
A mock-heroic elegy for a cat who drowned chasing goldfish — grave and grinning at once.
'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, reclin'd,
Gaz'd on the lake below.
Her conscious tail her joy declar'd:…