Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON MY DOG'S DEATH, by GEORGE HERBERT CLARKE



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON MY DOG'S DEATH, by                    
First Line: My friend has gone
Last Line: I am learning to listen.
Subject(s): Animals; Death; Dogs; Faith; Friendship; Grief; Love; Dead, The; Belief; Creed; Sorrow; Sadness


MY FRIEND has gone
Through the door of darkness;
Wearily waiting,
He fainted and fell
Upon its threshold,
And ghostly fingers
Out of the silence
Laid hold upon him
And drew him through.

He did not know
The subtle secrets
Of Death the wary;
Deeply he loved me,
My little comrade,—
His eyes were shining
With lights of worship,
Of modest wonder,
When I caressed him.
Even at the last,
Before the darkness,
He never doubted:
He thought his lord
Was tired or troubled,
But would surely save him.

Thy lord? Ah, comrade,
Futile thy faith!
And futile my will
To heal and keep thee!
We dwelt together
As midges merely,
Afloat in the fathomless
Dust of the ages.

Drifted we near
Unto each other,
Enjoying the sunlight
Playing upon us;
And then, on a sudden,
Came the chill glooming,
The separation,

And yet ... I feel ...
There are strange things about love:
Love is so loving,
So patient, enduring,
Through the doom of defeat
And utter sorrow!
There are strange things about love ...
I feel their strangeness.

Love may be somehow
More great than the midges,
Greater than ages,
Than loss and heartbreak
And death and distance,
Greater perhaps
Than It that orders
The swing of the planets,
Than all things else
That are or shall be.

The love I bear thee,
My little dead comrade,
Forever is trying
To tell me something.

I am learning to listen.





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