I'm a lean dog, a keen dog, a wild dog, and lone;
I'm a rough dog, a tough dog, hunting on my own;
I'm a bad dog, a mad dog, teasing silly sheep;
I love to sit and bay the moon, to keep fat souls from sleep.
I'll never be a lap dog, licking dirty feet,
A sleek dog, a meek dog, cringing for my meat,
Not for me the fireside, the well-filled plate,
But shut door, and sharp stone, and cuff and kick, and hate.
Not for me the other dogs, running by my side,
Some have run a short while, but none of them would bide.
O mine is still the lone trail, the hard trail, the best,
Wide wind, and wild stars, and hunger of the quest!
-- "Lone Dog," by Irene Rutherford McLeod (1891 - 1960s). She's fallen out of fashion, so very little biographical information exists on McLeod. But I recall reading this poem as a little girl and being oddly beguiled by the dog's fierce independence. This poem was included in a collection named Modern British Poetry in 1920, so written around then.
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- Oregon, United States
- loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !
5 comments:
I LOVE this. Thanks so much for finding and sharing curator!
Never read this before. It's wonderful.
I'm so glad you both like this poem!
Oh, thank you! I'd forgotten this poem. I loved it as a teenager.
Actually, I think it speaks to the teenager in us all.
The lone dog is about a wild-at-heart dog that loves to be free and roam around the big city that he/she lives in without a care in the world.
He doesn’t want to be a house dog and having to cringe for his meat .he prefers to chase silly sheep and keep fat souls from sleep he thinks himself better than all the rest.
This dog likes to think that he is lone at heart and that his “quest” is better than the rest but I think, deep down that he envy’s the other dogs because they have friends and he doesn’t.
I think that this poem is good because it really dose describe the average “lone dog” and what would be going through there mind. He really describes himself as leading the best life for a wild dog there is.
But I think the lone dog would be happier with a friendJ
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