The Poetry Corner

Epigram On The Toasts Of The Kit-Cat Club, Anno 1716.

By Alexander Pope

Whence deathless 'Kit-cat' took its name, Few critics can unriddle: Some say from 'pastrycook' it came, And some, from 'cat' and 'fiddle.' From no trim beaux its name it boasts, Gray statesmen, or green wits; But from this pell-mell pack of toasts Of old 'cats' and young 'kits.'