About Me

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Washington, 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 !

Monday, June 25, 2012

"my only friends"

I keep hearing that the reliance on pets for strong daily relationships is a modern thing.  It's certainly not, as I can prove below with this poem by Ebenezer Elliott (1781-1849).  

***

MY ONLY FRIENDS

My heart grows sick when home I come—
May God the thought forgive!
If 'twere not for my cat and dog
I think I could not live.
My cat and dog when I come home
Run out to welcome me;
She, mewing with her tail on end,
While wagging his comes he.
They listen for my homeward steps,
My smothered sob they hear,
When down my heart sinks, deathly down,
Because my home is near.

Why come they not? They do not come
My breaking heart to meet;
A heavier darkness on me falls,
I cannot lift my feet.
Oh, yes, they come—they never fail
To listen for my sighs;
My poor heart brightens when it meets
The sunshine of their eyes.
Again they come to meet me—God!
Wilt thou the thought forgive?
If 'twere not for my cat and dog
I think I could not live.

My playful cat and honest dog
Are all the friends I have.

***
From Robert Maynard Leonard's 1893 compilation The Dog in British Poetry, pp.251-2.

2 comments:

Carmen (Anita, Zar and Sara´s mommie) said...

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing and thanks for your Sarita´s congrats :)

parlance said...

Interesting t see we're not so different from people in that age. But he does seem a bit depressed, I must say. I sure hope he had some human friends as well.