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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 !

Thursday, April 04, 2013

the dog that mourned a king

"MAY 21, 1910"
"Beasts can neither feel nor suffer;"
So said Descartes long ago—
And the angels of dumb creatures
Wept that men should judge them so.
For they knew what depths of feeling
Through the dumb creation ran;
Yea, that beasts have died for sorrow,
Even for misjudging man.
Yesterday mankind repented:
Now for joy the angels sing;
For a dog was led as mourner
At the funeral of a King.

-- The poet, Annie Ashley, was writing about King Edward VII's wire fox terrier Caesar, who did indeed walk as chief mourner in his master's funeral procession.  Poem found in The Friendly Dog: an Anthology, J. Parson, ed.(London, K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1912), p. 63.

1 comment:

parlance said...

Descartes has a lot to answer for! I get so angry when I think how influential he was in giving humans the right to treat animals like machines. Good on this poet for setting the record straight!!