Hello and welcome back to the Daily Poem here in the Closer Reeds Podcast Network.

I'm David Kern, and I am joined by my friend Matt Bianco.

Hey, Matt.

Hey, David.

Today's poem is by Thomas Gray, who lived from 1716 to 1771, and in the department of perhaps unnecessary but

interesting factoids, he, like John Milton, was the son of a London-based scrivener. So he and

John Milton had something in common. William Gray, in his anthology that I've been referencing

in the classic hundred poems, writes that Gray was a wonderfully versatile poet, and though he may not rank among the top superstars, his elegy is probably

better known than poems by more celebrated figures.

He was friends with Horace Walpole, the son of Sir Robert Walpole, who was prime minister

of England at various times in the first half of the 18th century, and it was about Horace Walpole's cat that today's poem was written.

Today's poem is called Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat, Dound in a Tub of Goldfishes.

This particular poem was written in 1741 or thereabouts and published in 1751 and substantially revised in 1768.

His previous poem, his best known poem, is called elegy written in a country churchyard and is

much more of a serious poem given that it's called elegy written in a country churchyard.

This poem is not quite so serious.

It's much more humorous and thus maybe a little bit more fun in a lot of ways.

So I thought that the best way to approach that, to get that sense of humor,

was for Matna to alternate reading these stanzas.

So without further ado, this is Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat,

drowned in a tub of Goldfishes.

T' was on a lofty vases side where China's gayest art had dyed the azure flowers that blow.

...