Poem of the Day: ‘Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat’

Thomas Gray (1716–1771) occupies a serious place in any standard list of English poets, even though he published only 13 poems in his lifetime and his collected poetry — including his Latin poems, fragments, and translations — number only 75 works. As we noted earlier this year, when Gray’s “On the Death of Richard West” was the Sun’s Poem of the Day, it’s impossible to think of a truly comparable poet in English.Of course, a writer is cut considerable slack when his work includes such poems as “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College” (1742) and the inescapable “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” (1751). Or today’s poem. “Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes” (1747). Rhymed aabccb, the seven six-line stanzas have an interesting rhythmical pattern: iambic tetrameter couplets, followed by a trimeter line, the shorter third and sixth line signaling their connection with a rhyme: “She stretched in vain to reach the prize. / What female heart can gold despise? / What cat’s averse to fish?”Playing with tropes of ancient Greek mythology, the poem relates the death of a cat, the favorite of the author’s household, that fell into a fish bowl. And it concludes with the famous warning: “Not all that tempts your wandering eyes / And heedless hearts, is lawful prize; / Nor all that glisters, gold.”Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishesby Thomas Gray’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, reclined, Gazed on the lake below. Her conscious tail her joy declared; The fair round face, the snowy beard, The velvet of her paws, Her coat, that with the tortoise vies, Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes, She saw; and purred applause. Still had she gazed; but ’midst the tide Two angel forms were seen to glide, The genii of the stream; Their scaly armour’s Tyrian hue Through richest purple to the view Betrayed a golden gleam. The hapless nymph with wonder saw; A whisker first and then a claw, With many an ardent wish, She stretched in vain to reach the prize. What female heart can gold despise? What cat’s averse to fish? Presumptuous maid! with looks intent Again she stretch’d, again she bent, Nor knew the gulf between. (Malignant Fate sat by, and smiled) The slippery verge her feet beguiled, She tumbled headlong in.Eight times emerging from the flood She mewed to every watery god, Some speedy aid to send. No dolphin came, no Nereid stirred; Nor cruel Tom, nor Susan heard; A Favourite has no friend! From hence, ye beauties, undeceived, Know, one false step is ne’er retrieved, And be with caution bold. Not all that tempts your wandering eyes And heedless hearts, is lawful prize; Nor all that glisters, gold.___________________________________________With “Poem of the Day,” The New York Sun offers a daily portion of verse selected by Joseph Bottum with the help of the North Carolina poet Sally Thomas, the Sun’s associate poetry editor. Tied to the day, or the season, or just individual taste, the poems are drawn from the deep traditions of English verse: the great work of the past and the living poets who keep those traditions alive. The goal is always to show that poetry can still serve as a delight to the ear, an instruction to the mind, and a tonic for the soul.

Poem of the Day: ‘Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat’

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