Classic Poem

Close the high-stooped houses stood
In that quiet neighborhood,
Undisturbed by trucks or vans,
Pushcarts with their fruit and pans,
Scavengers with sticks and bags,
Or the junk-man crying " Rags! " —
No, not even gutter-brats.
But, at night, it swarmed with cats!
Slinking cats and blinking cats,
Cats to chase and cats to clamber,
(Eyes like topaz, eyes like amber),
Round about each garbage can,
In and out of areas ran, —
Scrawny cats, with deep aversion
To the Maltese or the Persian
(Soft and sleek that purr and mew
Where the wealthy avenue
Boasts its brownstone " No-admittance! "
To all ragged stranger kittens).

Here, as street-lamps sparked and sputtered
O'er the cobbled street unguttered,
Shade to glare and glare to shade
Moved the feline promenade, —
Brindled, blacker than the Devil,
Toms and tabbies in a revel,
Like familiars known to witches,
Like the mouser brought such riches
To Dick Whittington in history,
Like Egyptian cats of mystery,
Crouching, scampering, stalking, squalling,
Spitting fire or caterwauling,
Licking sores, rampant or sleeping, —
'Faith, it set my skin to creeping
As I viewed them, perched on high
In my window next the sky!

Every window blankly glistened,
And the dark street slept — and listened.
Clap-clap-clap! A footfall faint.
Then the Elevated's plaint,
Grinding on the curve afar.
Then a distant surface-car
Jarring past; a " cop's " night-stick
Rapping quickly on the brick;
Meanwhile — cats — in swirling mazes,
'Mid the harbor-fog's night hazes
That came seeping from the river
Setting dainty dreams ashiver
To the long lugubrious moaning
Of the river-craft intoning, —
Cats that overflowed each curbing
With an aimlessness disturbing,
Prowling, yowling, — yowling, prowling,
With such grinning, and such scowling!
Cat Luculluses that sought,
'Mid much refuse, feasts unbought;
Cats that wooed and cats that fought!
Oh, for some black plague of rats
That would rid my street of cats!

They would slither 'twixt your feet,
Coming home along the street.
As you fumbled for your keys
They would stalk by twos and threes
Like fierce bandits at your back,
Wildly whiskered, cloaked in black.
They would haunt the steps thereafter
Spreading scandal, faint with laughter
Of a still, demoniac kind
That was never to my mind.
And their cries! So strangely human, —
Gasping child — heart-broken woman!
So one's dreams (each dawn upbraided)
With gigantic cats paraded;
Cats that walked the moonlit sill
In a pageant never still,
Cats that, writhing, seemed to rise
From the street and fill the skies
Like a locust-cloud by day,
Like a feline Milky Way,
Where the moon, great puss of space,
With one cloud-paw washed its face,
Licked its lips and grinned again
Down on scampering mice and men!