walter savage landor, not savage at all

thanks british library flicker (PD)

In 1844 the English poet Walter Savage Landor - by all accounts a man tender to children and animals, giving the lie to his name - received the gift of a white Pomeranian dog.  He named the dog "Pomero," and the two became inseparable.  Pomero makes many charming appearances in Landor's letters, and I'll share a few soon.  Today, though, I'll share this poem in which Landor compares his friend to the Dog-Star (Sirius), and guess who wins in his eyes?

On the Dog-Star
I hold it unlawful
To question the awful
Appointments of Heaven, or hazard a doubt;
But needs I must say,
Heaven's Dog had its day,
And Pomero beats the said Dog out and out.

Landor, Walter Savage, and J. B. Sidgwick. The shorter poems of Walter Savage Landor. Cambridge University Press, 1946. p. 50.