on a tortoise and a cat

thanks pixabay

Another find in the "memorial poem" genre:  this one a twofer, turtle and cat.  I chuckled to see that while the poet spoke to the tortoise, he let the cat speak for itself, and assertively too, from the beyond.  Probably wisest.

ON A TORTOISE.
Slow were thy steps, and yet they reached their goal;
Cold was thy blood, but warm enough for thee;
Thou hadst a will, methinks thou hast a soul—
A breath of immortality.

ON A CAT.
Let neither fork nor spade upturn this plat.
For eighteen years I had my way;
I mewed, I purred, I scratched, I was a Cat—
And what I am thou canst not say.

-- Ernest Hartley Coleridge, found in Newbolt, Henry John, Sir, 1862-1938, Mary Lancaster Nott, and Kohler Collection of British Poetry. Animal Poems And Stories. London: H. Rees, 1916. p. 15.