Page 40 - Poetry-Animals

Coiled in the straw where Wilding put his nose
And gently licked it after every doze.

The next day, when the pony
Was in his cart, his crony
Before we started always rushed to kiss him;
He never failed, but Wilding seemed to miss him
Until he jumped and licked his face; the start
Thus authorized, he ran beneath the cart.

Alas! all that is ended:
An illness came, attended
With pain and poison; I have lost Luray.
‘T is said that every dog must have his day;
Oh! why did not Luray have his? Two years—
So much for loving; all the rest for tears.

And now I’ve told my story,
I must tell you how I glory
In having loved Luray. What better than
Such love for such a dog? I loathe the man
Who snarls at dogs: his very soul’s agog.
God made the world; God also made the dog.

— John Eliot Bowen (Century Magazine, 1890)

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