Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Rosamund Marriott Watson b. 1860

To My Cat

HALF loving-kindliness and half disdain,

Thou comest to my call serenely suave,

With humming speech and gracious gestures grave,

In salutation courtly and urbane;

Yet must I humble me thy grace to gain,

For wiles may win thee though no arts enslave,

And nowhere gladly thou abidest save

Where naught disturbs the concord of thy reign.

Sphinx of my quiet hearth! who deign’st to dwell

Friend of my toil, companion of mine ease,

Thine is the lore of Ra and Rameses;

That men forget dost thou remember well,

Beholden still in blinking reveries

With sombre, sea-green gaze inscrutable.