Poem about a big cat in a zoo that I can't find

[JDOvengloves]

For reasons too dull to go into... I was thinking about a poem about a big cat that I studied doing night school English, but I can't for the life of me find it.

The only definitive thing I can remember about it was something about the movement of the muscles under the skin reminding the poet of bowling balls...I think? But I'm not managing to find it.

Anyone know the poem , or willing to use their superior Googling skills to help me find it?

Thanks in advance

[JDOvengloves]

It's OK - I've found it


Second Glance at a Jaguar - Ted Hughes

Skinful of bowls he bowls them,
The hip going in and out of joint, dropping the spine
With the urgency of his hurry
Like a cat going along under thrown stones, under cover,
Glancing sideways, running
Under his spine. A terrible, stump-legged waddle

[swedeheart]

Found in its entirety here http://mikaelacastled...jaguar-by-ted-hughes/

Before I had finished reading your question I was certain you were thinking of equally as awesome poem The Panther, by Rainer Maria Rilke. It might interest you:


The Panther
Translation by A. S. Kline

His gaze is so wearied from the bars
Passing by, that it can hold no more.
It’s as if a thousand bars were given him:
And behind the thousand bars, no world.

The soft pace of his powerful, supple stride,
That draws him round in tightened circles,
Is like the dance of force about a centre,
In which a greater will stands paralysed.

Only, at times, the curtain of his pupils
Silently rises – Then an image enters,
Rushes through his tense, arrested limbs,
And echoing, inside his heart, is gone.

[heathfield]

So it wasn't ''Albert and the Lion'' then? !! ;-)

http://www.poemhunter.../albert-and-the-lion/

[swedeheart]

...and Pa said "What do you usually pay?' - love it, heathfield. Seen it before on YouTube as recited by a legendary British comedian whose name I'm afraid I don't remember... brilliant, it were;-)

[hellywelly4]

Stanley Holloway

[swedeheart]

Yep! Thanks hellywelly!

[wheaten]

My favourite cat poem is 'A Case Of Murder' by Vernon Scannell. Bit gruesome though, which is why I remember it!