| THE CAT went here and there | |
| And the moon spun round like a top, | |
| And the nearest kin of the moon | |
| The creeping cat looked up. | |
| Black Minnaloushe stared at the moon, | 5 |
| For wander and wail as he would | |
| The pure cold light in the sky | |
| Troubled his animal blood. | |
| Minnaloushe runs in the grass, | |
| Lifting his delicate feet. | 10 |
| Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance? | |
| When two close kindred meet | |
| What better than call a dance? | |
| Maybe the moon may learn, | |
| Tired of that courtly fashion, | 15 |
| A new dance turn. | |
| Minnaloushe creeps through the grass | |
| From moonlit place to place, | |
| The sacred moon overhead | |
| Has taken a new phase. | 20 |
| Does Minnaloushe know that his pupils | |
| Will pass from change to change, | |
| And that from round to crescent, | |
| From crescent to round they range? | |
| Minnaloushe creeps through the grass | 25 |
| Alone, important and wise, | |
| And lifts to the changing moon | |
| His changing eyes. | |
