Poetry: Cat

It's Thursday again? Time for some Tolkien, I think. I keep trying to learn this one... he was so good with nature topics and alliteration both.

Cat
by J.R.R. Tolkien

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,
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.