Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WALKING A PUPPY by WILLIAM HENRY OGILVIE

First Line: WILL YOU WALK A PUPPY?' THE HUNT ENQUIRED
Subject(s): ANIMALS; DOGS;
'Will you walk a puppy?' the Hunt enquired
Being sportsmen, we did as the Hunt desired
And in early June there arrived a man
With an innocent bundle of black and tan
A fat little foxhound, bred to the game
With a rollicking eye and a league-long name,
And he played with a cork on the string;
And walking a puppy was 'just the thing'
But the days went by and the bundle grew,
And broke the commandment and stole and slew
And covered the lawn with a varied loot
Of fowl and feather and bone and boot
And we scratched in the garden a hundred holes,
And wearied our bodies and damned our soles
As we chased him over the plots and swore
There was 'walking a puppy' for us no more!
If he's half as good in a woodland ride
As he is in tucking young ducks inside
And half as keen on the scent of a fox
As he is at finding my red silk socks,
It is safe to bet when our hound goes back
He will make a name in the ducal pack,
For he'll empty a cover-of beef or brose,
And he'll stick to the line-if it's hung with clothes!




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