To Your Dog and to My Dog |
Previous Publications: Indian Names of Places in Worcester County, Massachusetts
Indian Names of Places in Plymouth, Middleborough
Lakeville, and Carver
With Interpretations of Some of Them
To Your Dog And
To My Dog
FIRST IMPRESSION, SEPTEMBER 1915
SECOND IMPRESSION, DECEMBER 1915
THIRD IMPRESSION, FEBRUARY 1916
FOURTH IMPRESSION, APRIL 1916 |
TO YOUR DOG AND TO MY DOG "MAY THEY LIVE LONG AND PROSPER" By LINCOLN NEWTON KINNICUTT BOSTON and NEW YORK
Houghton Mifflin Company
The Riverside Press Cambridge
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY LINCOLN NEWTON KINNICUTT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published December 1915
To him who has never called a dog his friend
The full meaning of pure friendship is unknown |
Dear Dogs:— I have brought together in my library a few of the many proofs that show how true is the affection which many of your masters have for you, and some-time when I can read them to you privately, you will understand more fully the place you hold in our lives. I use the word MASTER only because our language is too poor to express in one word the real relationship which exists between us, we the master, and you the devoted slave and trusted servant, the most joyful of playfellows, and the best of companions, the bravest defender, and the truest friend. I wish I knew the word in your language which expresses all that you are to us. I also wish I knew how much you know, and could learn the many things you would gladly teach us. You can see what we cannot see. You can hear sounds we cannot hear. You interpret signs we cannot read. You scent the trails we cannot find. You talk to us with your speaking eyes, and we cannot understand. You are sometimes cruelly treated, and so are human beings, and sometimes we have to punish you for you are not always good. You have a certain amount of deviltry in your nature which we rather like, for it makes you more human and lovable. Your sins, however, are mostly against the laws we have made for you, not against your own, or those of nature, which are the laws of a higher power than ours—the one who made you. What glorious times have we enjoyed together tramping or riding through the fields and woods, over the hills and by the streams and through the swamps, or at the sea, on the sands and rocks, or over the salt marshes, with gun or camera or botany box, or with nothing at all! We have shared the best the world can give us, nature's gifts. And returning home, tired and happy, we in the evening, before a bright wood fire, you close by our side or at our feet only so that you can touch us, have lived over what the day has given us. Or sometimes at night before a camp fire with the quiet of the wood sounds all about us, have dreamed of the ducks and the grouse and the partridges, or of rare flowers or a beautiful landscape which the past day has brought, or of what the next day will bring. And perhaps you have dreamed also, a little selfishly (you are only selfish in your dreams) of the rabbits and squirrels and the woodchucks which have been the greatest temptation for you to resist all day long. They must have existed long ago in your garden of Eden. No matter what our conditions or surroundings in life may be you accept them gladly. King or peasant, palace or hovel, riches or poverty, plenty or starvation, burning sun or ice and snow, if you have once given us your affection, no matter who or what your master may be, you give him all you have to give to the very end—even life itself. It would almost seem that you were created only to serve us, for wherever man has been, even in the far past where history is almost a myth, you have been also, close by his side. Old Egypt, Persia, Greece, and ancient Rome have told of your fidelity and of your devotion. You know us in many ways as no human being knows us, for every hour of your life you wish to be near, and often you are our most intimate companion and the best friend we have in the world. We talk to you, more than half believing, or trying to believe, that you understand, and I am not sure but that to you alone we always tell the absolute truth, we whisper to you our secrets, we confide to you our hopes and ambitions, we tell you of our successes and our disappointments, and often in deep grief you alone see what we think is weakness to show to the outside world. Whatever happens to us we are sure of one friend, even if the whole world is against us. We trust to you our greatest treasures, our children, and we know with you they are safe. When you go to the Happy Hunting Ground you are truly and deeply mourned, and the great legacy you leave us is the memory of your loyalty, your devotion, your trust, and memory of the many happy hours and happy days you have given us in your too short life. And when we are obliged to say "the King is dead," we do not complete the old saying "long live the King" for many, many months—and sometimes never. May we meet again,
Your masters, and
Your FRIENDS.
Note
To The Masters The blank space on the title cover is designed for a photograph, or any picture, of your own dog. This collection is composed almost entirely of verses that have been written within the last twenty-five years. I know only too well that I have omitted many poems that the Dogs should hear, but I have not attempted a large anthology, for it has been done several times by far abler hands. I also know you will ask why some of your favorite poems are not found in this collection, but I have selected only a small number, among the many that have appealed to me, for I promised to read only a few to my friends, the Dogs, and I have left many blank half pages on which you can copy your own favorite Dog Poems. L. N. K.
Note
To those to whom I am indebted I wish to thank the Authors for their kindness in permitting me to reprint their poems and I also wish to acknowledge the courtesy of the many Publishers who have given me permission to reprint selections from their publications. To many friends I wish to express my obligation for the use of their collections. L. N. K.
Contents | Lufra | Sir Walter Scott | 1 | | Fidele's Grassy Tomb | Henry Newbolt | 5 | | Leo | Richard Watson Gilder | 13 | | Geist's Grave | Matthew Arnold | 17 | | The Power of the Dog | Rudyard Kipling | 25 | | To Rufus, a Spaniel | R. C. Lehmann | 31 | | Tim, an Irish Terrier | W. M. Letts | 39 | | To a Terrier | Patrick R. Chalmers | 43 | | Rhapsody on a Dog's Intelligence | Burges Johnson | 47 | | Frances | Richard Wightman | 53 | | Roger and I | Julian S. Cutler | 59 | | "Sir Bat-Ears" | Mrs. Eden | 65 | | Cluny | William Croswell Doane | 71 | | Laddie | Katharine Lee Bates | 75 | | Davy | Louise Imogen Guiney | 79 | | A Friend | Zitella Cocke | 83 | | The Bath | R. C. Lehmann | 87 | | Six Feet | Anonymous | 93 | | Wilhelm | Patrick R. Chalmers | 97 | | An Old Dog | Celia Duffin | 101 | | Remarks to my Grown-up Pup | Burges Johnson | 105 | | An Extract from Inscription on the Monument of a Newfoundland Dog | Lord Byron | 109 | | To Tim, an Irish Terrier | W. M. Letts | 113 | | My Dog | Anna Hadley Middlemas | 117 | | "Without are Dogs" | Edward A. Church | 121 | | You're a Dog | C. L. Gilman | 125 | | A Gentleman | Anonymous | 129 | | My Dog | St. John Lucas | 133 | | To Scott, a Collie | W. M. Letts | 137 | | 'Dodo,' 1903-1913 | Arthur Austin-Jackson | 141 | | Epitaph | Sir Walter Scott | 143 | | "Hamish," a Scotch Terrier | C. Hilton Brown | 145 |
LUFRA BY
SIR WALTER SCOTT
From
The Lady of the Lake
LUFRA The Monarch saw the gambols flag,
And bade let loose a gallant stag,
Whose pride, the holiday to crown,
Two favorite greyhounds should pull down,
That venison free, and Bordeaux wine,
Might serve the archery to dine.
But Lufra,—whom from Douglas' side
Nor bribe nor threat could e'er divide,
The fleetest hound in all the North,—
Brave Lufra saw and darted forth.
She left the royal hounds mid way,
And dashing on the antlered prey,
Sunk her sharp muzzle in his flank,
And deep the flowing life-blood drank.
The King's stout huntsman saw the sport
By strange intruder broken short,
Came up, and with his leash unbound,
In anger struck the noble hound.
—The Douglas had endured, that morn,
The King's cold look, the nobles' scorn,
And last, and worst to spirit proud,
Had borne the pity of the crowd;
But Lufra had been fondly bred,
To share his board, to watch his bed,
And oft would Ellen, Lufra's neck,
In maiden glee with garlands deck;
They were such playmates, that with name
Of Lufra, Ellen's image came.
His stifled wrath is brimming high,
In darkened brow and flashing eye;
As waves before the bark divide,
The crowd gave way before his stride;
Needs but a buffet and no more,
The groom lies senseless in his gore.
Such blow no other hand could deal
Though gauntleted in glove of steel. |
FIDELE'S GRASSY TOMB From
The Island Race
BY
HENRY NEWBOLT By permission of the Author, and of the Publishers
Elkin Mathews, London
FIDELE'S GRASSY TOMB The Squire sat propped in a pillowed chair,
His eyes were alive and clear of care,
But well he knew that the hour was come
To bid good-bye to his ancient home.
He looked on garden, wood, and hill,
He looked on the lake, sunny and still;
The last of earth that his eyes could see
Was the island church of Orchardleigh.
The last that his heart could understand
Was the touch of the tongue that licked his hand:
"Bury the dog at my feet," he said,
And his voice dropped, and the Squire was dead.
Now the dog was a hound of the Danish breed,
Staunch to love and strong at need:
He had dragged his master safe to shore
When the tide was ebbing at Elsinore.
From that day forth, as reason would,
He was named "Fidele," and made it good:
When the last of the mourners left the door
Fidele was dead on the chantry floor.
They buried him there at his master's feet,
And all that heard of it deemed it meet:
The story went the round for years,
Till it came at last to the Bishop's ears.
Bishop of Bath and Wells was he,
Lord of the lords of Orchardleigh;
And he wrote to the Parson the strongest screed
That Bishop may write or Parson read.
The sum of it was that a soulless hound
Was known to be buried in hallowed ground:
From scandal sore the Church to save
They must take the dog from his master's grave.
The heir was far in a foreign land,
The Parson was wax to my Lord's command:
He sent for the Sexton and bade him make
A lonely grave by the shore of the lake.
The Sexton sat by the water's brink
Where he used to sit when he used to think:
He reasoned slow, but he reasoned it out,
And his argument left him free from doubt.
"A Bishop," he said, "is the top of his trade:
But there's others can give him a start with the spade:
Yon dog, he carried the Squire ashore,
And a Christian couldn't ha' done no more."
The grave was dug; the mason came
And carved on stone Fidele's name:
But the dog that the Sexton laid inside
Was a dog that never had lived or died.
So the Parson was praised, and the scandal stayed,
Till, a long time after, the church decayed,
And, laying the floor anew, they found
In the tomb of the Squire the bones of a hound.
As for the Bishop of Bath and Wells,
No more of him the story tells;
Doubtless he lived as a Prelate and Prince,
And died and was buried a century since.
And whether his view was right or wrong
Has little to do with this my song;
Something we owe him, you must allow;
And perhaps he has changed his mind by now.
The Squire in the family chantry sleeps,
The marble still his memory keeps:
Remember, when the name you spell,
There rest Fidele's bones as well.
For the Sexton's grave you need not search,
'Tis a nameless mound by the island church:
An ignorant fellow, of humble lot—
But he knew one thing that a Bishop did not. |
LEO From The Poems of Richard Watson Gilder By permission of the Publishers, Houghton Mifflin Company
Boston
LEO Over the roofs of the houses I hear the barking of Leo—
Leo the shaggy, the lustrous, the giant, the gentle Newfoundland.
Dark are his eyes as the night, and black is his hair as the midnight;
Large and slow is his tread till he sees his master returning,
Then how he leaps in the air, with motion ponderous, frightening!
Now, as I pass to my work, I hear o'er the roar of the city—
Far over the roofs of the houses, I hear the barking of Leo;
For me he is moaning and crying, for me in measure sonorous
He raises his marvelous voice, for me he is wailing and calling.
None can assuage his grief, tho' but for a day is the parting,
Tho' morn after morn 'tis the same, tho' home every night comes his master,
Still will he grieve when we sever, and wild will be his rejoicing
When at night his master returns and lays but a hand on his forehead.
No lack will there be in the world of faith, of love, and devotion,
No lack for me and for mine, while Leo alone is living—
While over the roofs of the houses I hear the barking of Leo. |
GEIST'S GRAVE From Poems by Matthew Arnold
Dramatic and Later Poems By permission of the Publishers, The Macmillan Company, New York
GEIST'S GRAVE Four years!—and didst thou stay above
The ground, which hides thee now, but four?
And all that life, and all that love,
Were crowded, Geist! into no more?
Only four years those winning ways,
Which make me for thy presence yearn,
Call'd us to pet thee or to praise,
Dear little friend! at every turn?
That loving heart, that patient soul,
Had they indeed no longer span,
To run their course, and reach their goal,
And read their homily to man?
That liquid, melancholy eye,
From whose pathetic, soul-fed springs
Seem'd surging the Virgilian cry,[A]
The sense of tears in mortal things—
That steadfast, mournful strain, consoled
By spirits gloriously gay,
And temper of heroic mould—
What, was four years their whole short day?
Yes, only four!—and not the course
Of all the centuries yet to come,
And not the infinite resource
Of Nature, with her countless sum
Of figures, with her fulness vast
Of new creation evermore,
Can ever quite repeat the past,
Or just thy little self restore.
Stern law of every mortal lot!
Which man, proud man, finds hard to bear,
And builds himself I know not what
Of second life I know not where.
But thou, when struck thine hour to go,
On us, who stood despondent by,
A meek last glance of love didst throw,
And humbly lay thee down to die.
Yet would we keep thee in our heart—
Would fix our favourite on the scene,
Nor let thee utterly depart
And be as if thou ne'er hadst been.
And so there rise these lines of verse
On lips that rarely form them now;
While to each other we rehearse:
Such ways, such arts, such looks hadst thou!
We stroke thy broad brown paws again,
We bid thee to thy vacant chair,
We greet thee by the window-pane,
We hear thy scuffle on the stair.
We see the flaps of thy large ears
Quick raised to ask which way we go;
Crossing the frozen lake, appears
Thy small black figure on the snow!
Nor to us only art thou dear
Who mourn thee in thine English home;
Thou hast thine absent master's tear,
Dropt by the far Australian foam.
Thy memory lasts both here and there,
And thou shalt live as long as we.
And after that—thou dost not care!
In us was all the world to thee.
Yet, fondly zealous for thy fame,
Even to a date beyond our own
We strive to carry down thy name,
By mounded turf, and graven stone.
We lay thee, close within our reach,
Here, where the grass is smooth and warm,
Between the holly and the beech,
Where oft we watch'd thy couchant form,
Asleep, yet lending half an ear
To travellers on the Portsmouth road;—
There build we thee, O guardian dear,
Mark'd with a stone, thy last abode!
Then some, who through this garden pass,
When we too, like thyself, are clay,
Shall see thy grave upon the grass,
And stop before the stone, and say:
People who lived here long ago
Did by this stone, it seems, intend
To name for future times to know
The dachs-hound, Geist, their little friend. |
THE POWER OF THE DOG From
Actions and Reactions
BY
RUDYARD KIPLING By permission of the Publishers, Doubleday, Page & Company
Garden City
THE POWER OF THE DOG There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
But when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.
Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie—
Perfect passion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart for a dog to tear.
When the fourteen years which Nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,
And the vet's unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find—it's your own affair
But ... you 've given your heart to a dog to tear.
When the body that lived at your single will
When the whimper of welcome is stilled (how still!)
When the spirit that answered your every mood
Is gone—wherever it goes—for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear!
We've sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent per cent.
Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we've kept 'em, the more do we grieve:
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-time loan is as bad as a long—
So why in Heaven (before we are there!)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear? |
TO RUFUS, A SPANIEL From Crumbs of Pity
BY
R. C. LEHMANN By permission of the Author, and of the Publishers, William
Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh & London
TO RUFUS, A SPANIEL Rufus, a bright New Year! A savoury stew,
Bones, broth and biscuits, is prepared for you.
See how it steams in your enamelled dish,
Mixed in each part according to your wish.
Hide in your straw the bones you cannot crunch—
They'll come in handy for to-morrow's lunch;
Abstract with care each tasty scrap of meat,
Remove each biscuit to a fresh retreat
(A dog, I judge, would deem himself disgraced
Who ate a biscuit where he found it placed);
Then nuzzle round and make your final sweep,
And sleep, replete, your after-dinner sleep.
High in our hall we've piled the fire with logs
For you, the doyen of our corps of dogs.
There, when the stroll that health demands is done,
Your right to ease by due exertion won,
There shall you come, and on your long-haired mat,
Thrice turning round, shall tread the jungle flat,
And, rhythmically snoring, dream away
The peaceful evening of your New Year's day.
Rufus! there are who hesitate to own
Merits, they say, your master sees alone.
They judge you stupid, for you show no bent
To any poodle-dog accomplishment.
Your stubborn nature never stooped to learn
Tricks by which mumming dogs their biscuits earn.
Men mostly find you, if they change their seat,
Couchant obnoxious to their blundering feet;
Then, when a door is closed, you steadily
Misjudge the side on which you ought to be;
Yelping outside when all your friends are in,
You raise the echoes with your ceaseless din,
Or, always wrong, but turn and turn about,
Howling inside when all the world is out.
They scorn your gestures and interpret ill
Your humble signs of friendship and goodwill;
Laugh at your gambols, and pursue with jeers
The ringlets clustered on your spreading ears;
See without sympathy your sore distress
When Ray obtains the coveted caress,
And you, a jealous lump of growl and glare,
Hide from the world your head beneath a chair.
They say your legs are bandy—so they are:
Nature so formed them that they might go far;
They cannot brook your music; they assail
The joyful quiverings of your stumpy tail—
In short, in one anathema confound
Shape, mind and heart, and all, my little hound.
Well, let them rail. If, since your life began,
Beyond the customary lot of man
Staunchness was yours; if of your faithful heart
Malice and scorn could never claim a part;
If in your master, loving while you live,
You own no fault or own it to forgive;
If, as you lay your head upon his knee,
Your deep-drawn sighs proclaim your sympathy;
If faith and friendship, growing with your age,
Speak through your eyes and all his love engage;
If by that master's wish your life you rule—
If this be folly, Rufus, you're a fool.
Old dog, content you; Rufus, have no fear:
While life is yours and mine your place is here.
And when the day shall come, as come it must,
When Rufus goes to mingle with the dust
(If Fate ordains that you shall pass before
To the abhorred and sunless Stygian shore),
I think old Charon, punting through the dark,
Will hear a sudden friendly little bark;
And on the shore he'll mark without a frown
A flap-eared doggie, bandy-legged and brown.
He'll take you in: since watermen are kind,
He'd scorn to leave my little dog behind.
He'll ask no obol, but instal you there
On Styx's further bank without a fare.
There shall you sniff his cargoes as they come,
And droop your head, and turn, and still be dumb—
Till one fine day, half joyful, half in fear,
You run and prick a recognising ear,
And last, oh, rapture! leaping to his hand,
Salute your master as he steps to land. |
TIM, AN IRISH TERRIER From Songs from Leinster
BY W. M. LETTS By permission of the Author, and of the Publisher
David McKay, Philadelphia
TIM, AN IRISH TERRIER It's wonderful dogs they're breeding now:
Small as a flea or large as a cow;
But my old lad Tim he'll never be bet
By any dog that ever he met.
"Come on," says he, "for I'm not kilt yet."
No matter the size of the dog he'll meet,
Tim trails his coat the length o' the street.
D'ye mind his scars an' his ragged ear,
The like of a Dublin Fusilier?
He's a massacree dog that knows no fear.
But he'd stick to me till his latest breath;
An' he'd go with me to the gates of death.
He'd wait for a thousand years, maybe,
Scratching the door an' whining for me
If myself were inside in Purgatary.
So I laugh when I hear thim make it plain
That dogs and men never meet again.
For all their talk who'd listen to thim,
With the soul in the shining eyes of him?
Would God be wasting a dog like Tim? |
TO A TERRIER From Green Days and Blue Days
BY
PATRICK R. CHALMERS By permission of the Author. Published by Maunsel & Co., Ltd.
Dublin
TO A TERRIER Crib, on your grave beneath the chestnut boughs
To-day no fragrance falls nor summer air,
Only a master's love who laid you there
Perchance may warm the earth 'neath which you drowse
In dreams from which no dinner gong may rouse,
Unwakeable, though close the rat may dare,
Deaf, though the rabbit thump in playful scare,
Silent, though twenty tabbies pay their vows.
And yet, mayhap, some night when shadows pass,
And from the fir the brown owl hoots on high,
That should one whistle 'neath a favoring star
Your small white shade shall patter o'er the grass,
Questing for him you loved o' days gone by,
Ere Death the Dog-Thief carried you afar! |
RHAPSODY ON
A DOG'S INTELLIGENCE From Rhymes of Home
BY BURGES JOHNSON By permission of the Author, and of the Publishers
G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York
RHAPSODY ON A DOG'S INTELLIGENCE Dear dog, that seems to stand and gravely brood
Upon the broad veranda of our home
With soulful eyes that gaze into the gloam—
With speaking tail that registers thy mood,—
Men say thou hast no ratiocination;
Methinks there is a clever imitation.
Men say again thy kindred have no souls,
And sin is but an attribute of men;
Say, is it chance alone that bids thee,then,
Choose only garden spots for digging holes?
Why dost thou filch some fragment of the cooking
At times when no one seemeth to be looking?
Was there an early Adam of thy race,
And brindled Eve, the mother of thy house,
Who shared some purloined chicken with her spouse,
Thus causing all thy tribe to fall from grace?
If fleas dwelt in the garden of that Adam
Perhaps thy sinless parents never had 'em.
This morn thou cam'st a-slinking through the door,
Avoiding eyes, and some dark corner sought,
And though no accusation filled our thought,
Thy tail, apologetic, thumped the floor.
Who claims thou hast no conscience, argues vainly,
For I have seen its symptoms very plainly.
What leads thee to forsake thy board and bed
On days that are devoted to thy bath?
For if it is not reason yet it hath
Appearance of desire to plan ahead!
The sage who claims thy brain and soul be wizen
Would do quite well to swap thy head for his'n. |
FRANCES BY RICHARD WIGHTMAN By permission of the Author and from
The American Magazine
FRANCES You were a dog, Frances, a dog,
And I was just a man.
The Universal Plan,—
Well, 'twould have lacked something
Had it lacked you.
Somehow you fitted in like a far star
Where the vast spaces are;
Or like a grass-blade
Which helps the meadow
To be a meadow;
Or like a song which kills a sigh
And sings itself on and on
Till all the world is full of it.
You were the real thing, Frances, a soul!
Encarcassed, yes, but still a soul
With feeling and regard and capable of woe.
Oh yes I know, you were a dog, but I was just a man.
I did not buy you, no, you simply came,
Lost, and squatted on my door-step
With that wide strap about your neck,—
A worn one with a huge buckle.
When bigger dogs pitched onto you
You stood your ground and gave them all you had
And took your wounds unwhimpering, but hid them.
My, but you were game!
You were fine-haired
And marked with Princeton colors,
Black and deep yellow.
No other fellow
Could make you follow him,
For you had chosen me to be your pal.
My whistle was your law.
You put your paw
Upon my palm
And in your calm,
Deep eyes was writ
The promise of long comradeship,
When I came home from work,
Late and ill-tempered,
Always I heard the patter of your feet upon the oaken stairs;
Your nose was at the door-crack;
And whether I'd been bad or good that day
You fawned, and loved me just the same.
It was your way to understand;
And if I struck you my harsh hand
Was wet with your caresses.
You took my leavings, crumb and bone,
And stuck by me through thick and thin.
You were my kin.
And then one day you died,
At least that's what they said.
There was a box and
You were in it, still,
With a sprig of myrtle and your leash and blanket,
And put deep;
But though you sleep and ever sleep
I sense you at my heels! |
ROGER AND I BY REV. JULIAN S. CUTLER
From The Boston Evening Transcript By permission of the Author and of The Boston Evening Transcript
ROGER AND I Well, Roger, my dear old doggie, they say that your race is run;
And our jolly tramps together up and down the world are done;
You're only a dog, old fellow, a dog, and you've had your day;
But never a friend of all my friends has been truer than you alway.
We've had glorious times together in the fields and pastures fair;
In storm and sunny weather we have romped without a care;
And however men have treated me, though foul or fair their deal—
However many the friends that failed, I've found you true as steel.
That's right, my dear old fellow, look up with your knowing eye,
And lick my hand with your loving tongue that never has told a lie;
And don't be afraid, old doggie, if your time has come to go,
For somewhere out in the great Unknown there's a place for you, I know.
Then don't you worry, old Comrade; and don't you fear to die;
For out in that fairer country I will find you by and by;
And I'll stand by you, old fellow, and our love will surely win,
For never a heaven shall harbor me where they won't let Roger in.
When I reach that city glorious, behind the waiting dark,
Just come and stand outside the gate, and wag your tail and bark—
I'll hear your voice, and I'll know it, and I'll come to the gate and say:
"Saint Peter, that's my dog out there, you must let him come this way."
And then if the saint refuses, I'll go to the One above,
And say: "Old Roger is at the gate, with his heart brim full of love;
And there isn't a shining angel, of all the heavenly band,
Who ever lived a nobler life than he in the earthly land."
Then I know the gate will open, and you will come frisking in,
And we'll roam fair fields together, in that country free from sin.
So never you mind, old Roger, if your time has come to go;
You've been true to me, I'll be true to you—and the Lord is good, we know.
You're only a dog, old fellow; a dog, and you've had your day—
Well, I'm getting there myself, old boy, and I haven't long to stay;
But you've stood by me, old Comrade, and I'm bound to stand by you;
So don't you worry, old Roger, for our love will pull us through. |
"SIR BAT-EARS" BY
MRS. EDEN
From
Punch By permission of the Author, and special permission of the
Proprietors of London Punch
"SIR BAT-EARS" Sir Bat-ears was a dog of birth
And bred in Aberdeen,
But he favoured not his noble kin
And so his lot is mean,
And Sir Bat-ears sits by the almshouses
On the stones with grass between.
Under the ancient archway
His pleasure is to wait
Between the two stone pineapples
That flank the weathered gate;
And old, old alms-persons go by,
All rusty, bent and black,
"Good-day, good-day, Sir Bat-ears,"
They say and stroke his back.
And old, old alms-persons go by,
Shaking and well-nigh dead,
"Good-night, good-night, Sir Bat-ears!"
They say and pat his head.
So courted and considered
He sits out hour by hour,
Benignant in the sunshine
And prudent in the shower.
(Nay, stoutly can he stand a storm
And stiffly breast the rain,
That rising when the cloud is gone
He leaves a circle of dry stone
Whereon to sit again.)
A dozen little door steps
Under the arch are seen,
A dozen aged alms-persons
To keep them bright and clean:
Two wrinkled hands to scour each step
With a square of yellow stone—
But print-marks of Sir Bat-ears' paws
Bespeckle every one.
And little eats an alms-person,
But, though his board be bare,
There never lacks a bone of the best
To be Sir Bat-ears' share.
Mendicant muzzle and shrewd nose,
He quests from door to door;
Their grace they say—his shadow gray
Is instant on the floor,
Humblest of all the dogs there be,
A pensioner of the poor. |
CLUNY BY WILLIAM CROSWELL DOANE
From The Boston Evening Transcript By permission
CLUNY I am quite sure he thinks that I am God—
Since He is God on whom each one depends
For life, and all things that His bounty sends—
My dear old dog, most constant of all friends;
Not quick to mind, but quicker far than I
To Him whom God I know and own; his eye
Deep brown and liquid, watches for my nod;
He is more patient underneath the rod
Than I, when God His wise corrections sends.
He looks love at me, deep as words e'er spake;
And from me never crumb or sup will take
But he wags thanks with his most vocal tail;
And when some crashing noise wakes all his fear
He is content and quiet if I'm near,
Secure that my protection will prevail;
So, faithful, mindful, thankful, trustful, he
Tells me what I unto my God should be. | | | | May 24-25, 1902. | | | He had lived out his life, but not his love;
Daily up steep and weary stair he came,
His big heart bursting with the strain, to prove
His loneliness without me. Just the same
Old word of greeting beamed in his deep eye,
With a new look of wonder in it, asking why
"The whole creation groans and travails." He
And I there faced the mystery of pain.
Finding me dumb and helpless, down again
He went, unanswered, with the dawn to die,
And find the mystery opened with the key,
"The creature from corruption's bondage free." |
LADDIE From America the Beautiful
and Other Poems
BY KATHARINE LEE BATES By permission of the Author, and of the Publishers
Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York
LADDIE Lowly the soul that waits
At the white, celestial gates,
A threshold soul to greet
BelovÈd feet.
Down the streets that are beams of sun
Cherubim children run;
They welcome it from the wall;
Their voices call.
But the Warder saith: "Nay, this
Is the City of Holy Bliss.
What claim canst thou make good
To angelhood?"
"Joy," answereth it from eyes
That are amber ecstasies,
Listening, alert, elate,
Before the gate.
Oh, how the frolic feet
On lonely memory beat!
What rapture in a run
'Twixt snow and sun!
"Nay, brother of the sod,
What part hast thou in God?
What spirit art thou of?"
It answers: "Love,"
Lifting its head, no less
Cajoling a caress,
Our winsome collie wraith,
Than in glad faith
The door will open wide,
Or kind voice bid: "Abide,
A threshold soul to greet
The longed-for feet."
Ah, Keeper of the Portal,
If Love be not immortal,
If Joy be not divine,
What prayer is mine? |
DAVY BY
LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY
From
Century Magazine By permission of the Author, and of The Century Company
New York
DAVY Davy, her knight, her dear, was dead:
Low in dust was the silken head.
"Isn't there heaven,"
(She was but seven)
"Isn't there" (sobbing) "for dogs?" she said.
"Man is immortal, sage or fool:
Animals end, by different rule."
So had they prated
Of things created,
An hour before, in her Sunday-school.
Trusty and glad and true, who could
Match her hero of hardihood,
Rancorless, selfless,
Prideless, pelfless?—
How I should like to be half so good!
Firebrand eye and icicle nose;
Ear inwrought like a guelder-rose;
All the sweet wavy
Beauty of Davy;—
Sad, not to answer whither it goes!
"Isn't there heaven for dogs that's dead?
God made Davy, out of His head:
If He unmake him,
Doesn't He take him?
Why should He throw him away?" she said.
The birds were busy, the brook was gay,
But the little hand was in mine all day.
Nothing could bury
That infinite query:
"Davy,—would God throw him away?" |
A FRIEND BY ZITELLA COCKE
From The Youth's Companion By permission of the Author and of The Youth's Companion
A FRIEND "Your invitation, sir, to dine
With you to-night I must decline
Because to-day I lost a friend—
A friend long known and loved;" thus penned
The good Sir Walter, aptly named
The Wizard of the North, and famed
For truest, gentlest heart, among
The homes that love the English tongue.
Great heart, that felt the soul of things
In all its high imaginings,
And showed, mid vexing stress and strife
Of worldly cares, a hero's life!
An humble friend it was he loved,
And oft together they had roved
The heather hills and sweet brae side,
Or braved the rushing river's tide,
And many a frosty winter night
Sat musing by the warm firelight—
A faithful friend, whom chance and change
Of fleeting years could ne'er estrange.
For he who once has gained the love
And friendship of a dog shall prove
Thro' joy and sorrow to the end
The deep devotion of a friend.
What is it? More than instinct fine,
This something man cannot divine,
Which speaks from eyes where lips are mute,
Which makes the creature we name brute
The noblest pattern we may see
Of loving, lasting loyalty.
We dare not call it mind or soul,
We know not what or where its goal,
But aye we know its little span
Of life spells large—Friendship to man;
Nor wonder Scott, in grief, should say,
"I lost a much-loved friend to-day!" |
THE BATH BY
R. C. LEHMANN
From
Punch By permission of the Author, and special permission of the
Proprietors of London Punch
THE BATH Hang garlands on the bathroom door;
Let all the passages be spruce;
For, lo, the victim comes once more,
And, ah, he struggles like the deuce!
Bring soaps of many scented sorts;
Let girls in pinafores attend,
With John, their brother, in his shorts,
To wash their dusky little friend,
Their little friend, the dusky dog,
Short-legged and very obstinate,
Faced like a much-offended frog,
And fighting hard against his fate.
No Briton he! From palace-born
Chinese patricians he descends;
He keeps their high ancestral scorn;
His spirit breaks, but never bends.
Our water-ways he fain would 'scape;
He hates the customary bath
That thins his tail and spoils his shape,
And turns him to a fur-clad lath;
And, seeing that the Pekinese
Have lustrous eyes that bulge like buds,
He fain would save such eyes as these,
Their owner's pride, from British suds.
Vain are his protests—in he goes.
His young barbarians crowd around;
They soap his paws, they soap his nose;
They soap wherever fur is found.
And soon, still laughing, they extract
His limpness from the darkling tide;
They make the towel's roughness act
On back and head and dripping side.
They shout and rub and rub and shout—
He deprecates their odious glee—
Until at last they turn him out,
A damp gigantic bumble-bee.
Released, he barks and rolls, and speeds
From lawn to lawn, from path to path,
And in one glorious minute needs
More soapsuds and another bath. |
SIX FEET From a friend
"SIX FEET" "My little rough dog and I
Live a life that is rather rare.
We have so many good walks to take
And so few hard things to bear;
So much that gladdens and recreates,
So little of wear and tear."
"Sometimes it blows and rains,
But still the six feet ply
No care at all to the following four
If the leading two know why.
'Tis a pleasure to have six feet, we think,
My little rough dog and I."
"And we travel all one way;
'Tis a thing we should never do,
To reckon the two without the four,
Or the four without the two.
It would not be right if anyone tried,
Because it would not be true."
"And who shall look up and say
That it ought not so to be,
Tho' the earth is Heaven enough for him,
Is it less than that to me?
For a little rough dog can make
A joy that enters eternity!" |
WILHELM BY
PATRICK R. CHALMERS
From
Punch By permission of the Author, and special permission of the
Proprietors of London Punch
WILHELM "No good thing comes from out of Kaiserland,"
Says Phyllis; but beside the fire I note
One Wilhelm, sleek in tawny gold of coat,
Most satin-smooth to the caresser's hand.
A velvet mien; an eye of amber, full
Of that which keeps the faith with us for life;
Lover of meal times; hater of yard-dog strife;
Lordly, with silken ears most strokeable.
Familiar on the hearth, refuting her,
He sits, the antic-pawed, the proven friend,
The whimsical, the grave and reverend—
Wilhelm the Dachs from out of Hanover. |
AN OLD DOG BY
CELIA DUFFIN
From
The Spectator By permission of the Author, The London Spectator, and
Maunsel and Company, Ltd. Dublin
AN OLD DOG Now that no shrill hunting horn
Can arouse me at the morn,
Deaf I lie the long day through,
Dreaming firelight dreams of you;
Waiting, patient through it all,
Till the greater Huntsman call.
If we are, as people say,
But the creatures of a day,
Let me live, when we must part,
A little longer in your heart.
You were all the God I knew,
I was faithful unto you. |
REMARKS TO
MY GROWN-UP PUP From Rhymes of Home
BY BURGES JOHNSON By permission of the Author, and of the Publishers
G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York
REMARKS TO MY GROWN-UP PUP By rules of fitness and of tense,
By all old canine precedents,
Oh, Adult Dog, the time is up
When I may fondly call you Pup.
The years have sped since first you stood
In straddle-legged puppyhood,—
A watch-pup, proud of your renown,
Who barked so hard you tumbled down.
In Age's gain and Youth's retreat
You've found more team-work for your feet,
You drool a soupÇon less, and hark!
There's fuller meaning to your bark.
But answer fairly, whilom pup,
Are these full proof of growing up?
I heard an elephantine tread
That jarred the rafters overhead:
Who leaped in mad abandon there
And tossed my slippers in the air?
Who, sitting gravely on the rug,
Espied a microscopic bug
And stalked it, gaining bit by bit,—
Then leapt in air and fell on it?
Who gallops madly down the breeze
Pursuing specks that no one sees,
Then finds some ancient boot instead
And worries it till it is dead?
I have no adult friends who choose
To gnaw the shoe-strings from my shoes,—
Who eat up twine and paper scraps
And bark while they are taking naps.
Oh Dog, you offer every proof
That stately age yet holds aloof.
Grown up? There's meaning in the phrase
Of dignity as well as days.
Oh why such size, beloved pup?—
You've grown enough, but not grown up. |
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