Doggerel Poems About Dogs

by CIURARU, CARMELA

• ISBN13: 9781400040377
• ISBN10: 140004037X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-11-11
• Publisher: Everyman's Library

Summary

From Chaucer to Billy Collins and from basset hounds to brindle bull terriers,Doggerelpresents a robust brood of the most charming verse tributes ever offered to our beloved canine companions. The rich and assorted cadences of some of the most distinguished poets across the centuries ring out from these pagesfrom Spenser, Shakespeare, and Pope to Merrill, Merwin, and Muldooncelebrating pooches of every pedigree and persuasion. Here is Margaret Cavendish's barking chorus of beagles on the hunt; Elizabeth Bishop's "Pink Dog" alongside Robyn Selman's "My Dog is Named for Elizabeth Bishop"; Charles Baxter's villanelle "Dog Kibble," whose dog-narrator decides that "Life isn't meaningless because there's food"; and the desultory charms of Jane Kenyon's unleashed dog, nuzzling about on a drizzly afternoon. From lazy dogs curled up by the fireplace to audacious hounds howling at the moon, from mutts to purebreds, puppies to old dogs,Doggerelis an irresistible gathering of fast and faithful friends.

Author Biography

Carmela Ciuraru is the editor of the anthology First Loves: Poets Introduce the Essential Poems That Captivated and Inspired Them, and the former editor of the Journal of the Poetry Society of America. A graduate of Columbia University's School of Journalism, she lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. 13
Most Loyal and Noble Companion
An Introduction to Dogs	p. 19
The Power of the Dog	p. 21
The DOG	p. 23
Understanding	p. 24
The Best Friend	p. 25
Argus	p. 26
Tray, the Exemplar	p. 27
Verse for a Certain Dog	p. 28
Your Face on the Dog's Neck	p. 29
Dog-God	p. 33
Man and Dog	p. 35
Growing Dark	p. 36
Custodian	p. 38
My Comforter	p. 40
Fidelity of the Dog	p. 41
To Flush, My Dog	p. 44
Puppy Love
His Apologies	p. 51
How It Began	p. 54
From The Chase	p. 55
Drink, Puppy, Drink	p. 58
The Hound of Ulster	p. 60
Dog Days	p. 61
On the Virtues of Particular Breeds
Dogs and Weather	p. 65
The Dog Parade	p. 66
Advice to a Dog Painter	p. 67
The Irish Greyhound	p. 68
Hamish: A Scots Terrier	p. 70
My Brindle Bull-Terrier	p. 72
The Dog and the Water-Lily	p. 74
To a Black Greyhound	p. 76
Sheepdog Trials in Hyde Park	p. 78
The Dachshund	p. 81
The Dog of St Bernard's	p. 82
To a Pomeranian Puppy Valued at 2500 Dollars	p. 85
My Father's Irish Setters	p. 87
The Properties of a Good Greyhound	p. 90
Barry, the St Bernard	p. 91
The Hairy Dog	p. 92
O Pug!	p. 93
Compendium Dachshundium	p. 95
Panegyric for Gee	p. 97
In Praise of the Basset Hound	p. 99
Beagles	p. 101
Have Leash, Will Walk
After an Illness, Walking the Dog	p. 105
The Woodman's Dog	p. 107
Dogs in the Park	p. 108
My Dog is Named for Elizabeth Bishop	p. 109
Saturday, 8:58 a.m.	p. 110
Walking the Dog	p. 111
To Sleep and to Dream
A Dog Sleeping On My Feet	p. 115
Dan	p. 117
The Paw	p. 118
Dog Dreaming	p. 121
As She Goes	p. 122
Hark, Hark, Hear Them Bark
Barking Dogs in the Snow	p. 125
O Happy Dogs of England	p. 126
The Rape of Chanticleer	p. 127
Theseus and Hippolyta (from A Midsummer Night's Dream)	p. 128
Dog at Night	p. 130
The Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles, and the Intervention of the Great Rumpuscat	p. 131
A Friendly Welcome	p. 134
The Thrill of the Hunt
On a Spaniel Called Beau	p. 137
Bull-Baiting	p. 138
Shepheard's Dogge	p. 139
The Fawning Whelp	p. 141
Small Poem About the Hounds and the Hares	p. 142
Incident	p. 143
The Hunting of the Hare	p. 145
It's a Dog's Life
Apres la Politique, la Haine des Bourbons	p. 149
Launce's Dog, Crab (from The Two Gentlemen of Verona)	p. 150
Full of the Moon	p. 152
Dog	p. 153
Pink Dog	p. 156
Dog Prospectus	p. 158
Hope	p. 161
Eating Poetry	p. 162
Two Dogs	p. 163
The Unruly Thoughts of the Dog Trainer's Lover	p. 164
Dog	p. 166
The Toy Bone	p. 170
Scroppo's Dog	p. 172
Lone Dog	p. 175
What the Dog Perhaps Hears	p. 176
Dog	p. 178
Power Source	p. 179
The Song of the Mischievous Dog	p. 180
Doggerel, or, in Their Own Words
Confession of a Glutton	p. 183
A Popular Personage at Home	p. 185
On the Collar of Tiger	p. 187
Engraved on the Collar of a Dog, Which I Gave to His Royal Highness	p. 188
Mommy	p. 189
Contentment	p. 191
Yoko	p. 193
The Bloodhound Speaks	p. 196
A Dog's Eye View	p. 197
The Promotion	p. 198
Homer's Seeing-Eye Dog	p. 200
Dog Kibble: A Villanelle	p. 202
The House Dog's Grave	p. 203
Oriane	p. 205
The Sadness of Puppies	p. 206
Birch	p. 207
In Remembrance
Epitaph to a Dog	p. 211
Kaiser Dead	p. 213
Geist's Grave	p. 215
Upon His Spaniel, Tracie	p. 219
Epitaph on Fop	p. 220
Dead Dog	p. 221
Talking to Dogs	p. 222
Exemplary Nick	p. 225
Ruby	p. 226
On the Death of a Favourite Old Spaniel	p. 228
The Pardon	p. 229
Ali	p. 231
Lament for Toby, a French Poodle	p. 234
My Boyhood Dog	p. 236
To the Dog Belvoir	p. 237
Acknowledgments	p. 239
Index of Authors	p. 249
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