Pure blood domestic, guaranteed, Soft-mannered, musical in purr, The ribbon had declared the breed, Gentility was in the fur.

Such feline culture in the gads, No anger ever arched her back— What distance since those velvet pads Departed from the leopard's track!

And when I mused how Time had thinned The jungle strains within the cells, How human hands had disciplined Those prowling optic parallels;

I saw the generations pass Along the reflex of a spring, A bird had rustled in the grass, The tab had caught it on the wing:

Behind the leap so furtive-wild Was such ignition in the gleam, I thought an Abyssinian child Had cried out in the whitethroat's scream.