Relationships

An Appeal to Cats in the Business of Love

by Thomas Flatman 1635–1688

From Poems and Songs (1686)

Relationships

Ye cats that at midnight spit love at each other,
Who best feel the pangs of a passionate lover,
I appeal to your scratches and your tattered fur,
If the business of Love be no more than to purr.
Old Lady Grimalkin with her gooseberry eyes,
Knew something when a kitten, for why she was wise;
You find by experience, the love-fit's soon o'er,
Puss! Puss! lasts not long, but turns to Cat-whore!
Men ride many miles,
Cats tread many tiles,
Both hazard their necks in the fray;
Only Cats, when they fall
From a house or a wall,
Keep their feet, mount their tails, and away!

MLA

Flatman, Thomas. “An Appeal to Cats in the Business of Love.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/flatman/39/.

Chicago

Flatman, Thomas. “An Appeal to Cats in the Business of Love.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/flatman/39/.

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