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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow CAT-PIE. - Goethe's Works, vol. 1 (Poems)

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Subject Area: Literature

CAT-PIE. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe’s Works, vol. 1 (Poems) [1885]

Edition used:

Goethe’s Works, illustrated by the best German artists, 5 vols. (Philadelphia: G. Barrie, 1885). Vol. 1.

Part of: Goethe’s Works, 5 vols.

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CAT-PIE.

    • WHILE he is mark’d by vision clear
    • Who fathoms Nature’s treasures,
    • The man may follow, void of fear,
    • Who her proportions measures.
    • Though for one mortal, it is true,
    • These trades may both be fitted,
    • Yet, that the things themselves are two
    • Must always be admitted.
    • Once on a time there liv’d a cook
    • Whose skill was past disputing,
    • Who in his head a fancy took
    • To try his luck at shooting.
    • So, gun in hand, he sought a spot
    • Where stores of game were breeding,
    • And there ere long a cat he shot
    • That on young birds was feeding.
    • This cat he fancied was a hare,
    • Forming a judgment hasty,
    • So serv’d it up for people’s fare,
    • Well-spic’d, and in a pasty.
    • Yet many a guest with wrath was fill’d
    • (All who had noses tender):
    • The cat that’s by the sportsman kill’d
    • No cook a hare can render.