You see the beauty of the world
Through eyes of unalloyed content,
And in my study chair upcurled,
Move me to pensive wonderment.

I wish I knew your trick of thought,
The perfect balance of your ways;
They seem an inspiration, caught
From other laws in older days.

-Anonymous

Before a cat will condescend
To treat you as a trusted friend
Some little token of esteem
Is needed, like a dish of cream

-T.S. Eliot

The cat went here and there
And the moon spun round like a top,
And the nearest kin of the moon,
The creeping cat, looked up.

-William Butler Yeats

I am the cat of cats.  I am
The everlasting cat!
Cunning, and old, and sleek as jam,
The everlasting cat!
I hunt the vermin in the night-
The everlasting cat!
For I see best without the light-
The everlasting cat!

-Anonymous

She had green eyes, that excellent seer,
And little peaks to either ear.
She sat there, and I sat here.
She spoke of Egypt, and a white
Temple, against enormous night.
She smiled with clicking teeth and said
That the dead were never dead;
She said old emperors hung like bats
In barns at night, or ran like rats-
But empresses came back as cats!

-Stephen Vincent Benet

Those who love cats which do not even purr,
Or which are thin and tired and very old,
Bend down to them in the street and stroke
  their fur
And rub their ears and smooth their breast, and
  hold
Their paws, and gaze into their eyes of gold.

-Francis Scarfe

A kitten with a length of string
    Is such a pretty, playful thing.
A kitten with a leaf to chase
    Exhibits beauty, form and grace.
But I love kittens curled up, wise,
    With ancient mystery in their eyes...

-Salvatore Marsiglia

To a Cat

Stately, kindly, lordly friend,
     Condescend
Here to sit by me, and turn
Glorious eyes that smile and burn,
Golden eyes, love's lustrous meed,
On the golden page I read.

All your wondrous wealth of hair,
     Dark and fair,
Silken-shaggy, soft and bright
As the coulds and beams of night,
Pays my reverent hand's caress
Back with familiar gentleness

Dogs may fawn on all and some
     As they come;
You, a friend of loftier mind,
Answer friends alone in kind.
Just your foot upon my hand
Softly bids it understand.

-Algernon Charles Swinburne