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  • On a Cat, Ageing
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On a Cat, Ageing

Sir Alexander Gray

He blinks upon the hearth-rug,
And yawns in deep content,
Accepting all the comforts
That Providence has sent.

Louder he purrs and louder,
In one glad hymn of praise
For all the night’s adventures,
For quiet restful days.

Life will go on forever,
With all that cat can wish;
Warmth and the glad procession
Of fish and milk and fish.

Only – the thought disturbs him –
He’s noticed once or twice,
The times are somehow breeding
A nimbler race of mice.


Sir Alexander Gray

from Gossip: a book of new poems (Porpoise Press, 1928), and included in Selected Poems (William Maclellan, [1948])

Reproduced by permission of the Estate of Sir Alexander Gray

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ageing cats
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Sir Alexander Gray1882 - 1968

A civil servant and Professor of Political Economy, Sir Alexander Gray's reputation abides not only in his own field, but as a Scots language poet and the author of some of the most-quoted lines in modern Scottish poetry.
More about Sir Alexander Gray

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