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I LOVING friend, the gift of one | |
| Who her own true faith has run | |
| Through thy lower nature, | |
| Be my benediction said | |
| With my hand upon thy head, | 5 |
| Gentle fellow creature! | |
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II Like a lady’s ringlets brown, | |
| Flow thy silken ears adown | |
| Either side demurely | |
| Of thy silver-suited breast, | 10 |
| Shining out from all the rest | |
| Of thy body purely. | |
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III Darkly brown thy body is, | |
| Till the sunshine striking this | |
| Alchemize its dullness, | 15 |
| When the sleek curls manifold | |
| Flash all over into gold, | |
| With a burnished fullness. | |
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IV Underneath my stroking hand, | |
| Startled eyes of hazel bland | 20 |
| Kindling, growing larger, | |
| Up thou leapest with a spring, | |
| Full of prank and curveting, | |
| Leaping like a charger. | |
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V Leap! thy broad tail waves a light, | 25 |
| Leap! thy slender feet are bright, | |
| Canopied in fringes; | |
| Leap—those tasselled ears of thine | |
| Flicker strangely, fair and fine, | |
| Down their golden inches. | 30 |
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VI Yet, my pretty, sportive friend, | |
| Little is ’t to such an end | |
| That I praise thy rareness! | |
| Other dogs may be thy peers | |
| Haply in these drooping ears, | 35 |
| And this glossy fairness, | |
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VII But of thee it shall be said, | |
| This dog watched beside a bed | |
| Day and night unweary,— | |
| Watched within a curtained room, | 40 |
| Where no sunbeam brake the gloom | |
| Round the sick and dreary. | |
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VIII Roses, gathered for a vase, | |
| In that chamber died apace, | |
| Beam and breeze resigning; | 45 |
| This dog only, waited on | |
| Knowing that when light is gone | |
| Love remains for shining. | |
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IX Other dogs in thymy dew | |
| Tracked the hares and followed through | 50 |
| Sunny moor or meadow; | |
| This dog only, crept and crept | |
| Next a languid cheek that slept, | |
| Sharing in the shadow. | |
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X Other dogs of loyal cheer | 55 |
| Bounded at the whistle clear, | |
| Up the woodside hieing; | |
| This dog only, watched in reach | |
| Of a faintly uttered speech, | |
| Or a louder sighing. | 60 |
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XI And if one or two quick tears | |
| Dropped upon his glossy ears, | |
| Or a sigh came double,— | |
| Up he sprang in eager haste, | |
| Fawning, fondling, breathing fast | 65 |
| In a tender trouble. | |
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XII And this dog was satisfied | |
| If a pale thin hand would glide | |
| Down his dewlaps sloping,— | |
| Which he pushed his nose within, | 70 |
| After,—platforming his chin | |
| On the palm left open. | |
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XIII This dog, if a friendly voice | |
| Call him now to blyther choice | |
| Than such chamber-keeping, | 75 |
| ‘Come out!’ praying from the door,— | |
| Presseth backward as before, | |
| Up against me leaping. | |
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XIV Therefore to this dog will I, | |
| Tenderly not scornfully, | 80 |
| Render praise and favour: | |
| With my hand upon his head, | |
| Is my benediction said | |
| Therefore, and for ever. | |
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XV And because he loves me so, | 85 |
| Better than his kind will do | |
| Often, man or woman, | |
| Give I back more love again | |
| Than dogs often take of men, | |
| Leaning from my Human. | 90 |
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XVI Blessings on thee, dog of mine, | |
| Pretty collars make thee fine, | |
| Sugared milk make fat thee! | |
| Pleasures wag on in thy tail, | |
| Hands of gentle motion fail | 95 |
| Nevermore, to pat thee! | |
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XVII Downy pillow take thy head, | |
| Silken coverlid bestead, | |
| Sunshine help thy sleeping! | |
| No fly’s buzzing wake thee up, | 100 |
| No man break thy purple cup, | |
| Set for drinking deep in. | |
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XVIII Whiskered cats arointed flee, | |
| Sturdy stoppers keep from thee | |
| Cologne distillations; | 105 |
| Nuts lie in thy path for stones, | |
| And thy feast-day macaroons | |
| Turn to daily rations! | |
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XIX Mock I thee, in wishing weal?— | |
| Tears are in my eyes to feel | 110 |
| Thou art made so straitly, | |
| Blessing needs must straiten too,— | |
| Little canst thou joy or do, | |
| Thou who lovest greatly. | |
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XX Yet be blessèd to the height | 115 |
| Of all good and all delight | |
| Pervious to thy nature; | |
| Only loved beyond that line, | |
| With a love that answers thine, | |
| Loving fellow creature. | 120 |
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