XIII. 



SOME POETS' DOGS. 



" MastiflF, greyhound, mongrel grim, 

 Hound or spaniel, bracli or lym. 

 Or bobtail-tyke or trundle-tail." 



Premising, in the poet's humour, that animals are only 

 worthy of regard relatively to man, it follows that no animal 

 is so suitable for poetical treatment as the dog, for the dog 

 has virtually no independent existence. Apart from man 

 it has no identity. 



For the wild dog is hardly a dog. It smells like a fox, 

 has eyes that gleam in the twilight like a wolfs, is silent 

 under all canine provocations to bark, and when it does 

 give tongue, its howling is in a voice that is absolutely 

 unlike any other created utterance. In appearance it is a 

 cross between a jackal and a wolf, assuming a furry winter 

 coat in high latitudes, while its. manners in captivity re- 

 semble neither the one nor the other. In Byron it " howls 

 o'er the fountain brim, with baffled thirst and famine grim," 

 but as he is speaking of the deserted courts* of Hassan's 

 palace, the animal intended is probably only the "pariah- 

 dog " of the East, as also in the following — 



" He saw the lean dogs beneath the wall 

 Hold o'er the dead their carnival ; 



