CAT - A POEM

 “CAT” is a poem written by Sam Gamgee and recorded in the Red Book of Westmarch. It was published as the twelfth poem in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962), and the illustration herein is by Pauline Baynes for the poem.

The fat cat on the mat

may seem to dream

of nice mice that suffice

for him, or cream;

but he free, maybe,

walks in thought

unbowed, proud, where loud

roared and fought

his kin, lean and slim,

or deep in den

in the East feasted on beasts

and tender men.

The giant lion with iron

claw in paw,

and huge ruthless tooth

in gory jaw;

the pard, dark-starred,

fleet upon feet,

that oft soft from aloft

leaps on his meat

where woods loom in gloom--

far now they be,

fierce and free,

and tamed is he;

but fat cat on the mat

kept as a pet,

he does not forget.