Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AN ELEGY ON A LAP-DOG, by JOHN GAY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN ELEGY ON A LAP-DOG, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Shock's fate I mourn; poor shock is now no more
Last Line: Who fawned like man, but ne'er like man betrayed.'
Variant Title(s): On A Lap-dog
Subject(s): Animals; Dogs


SHOCK'S fate I mourn; poor Shock is now no more;
Ye Muses, mourn; ye chambermaids, deplore.
Unhappy Shock! yet more unhappy Fair,
Doomed to survive thy joy and only care!
Thy wretched fingers now no more shall deek,
And tie the favourite riband round his neck;
No more thy hand shall smooth his glossy hair,
And comb the wavings of his pendant ear.
Yet cease thy flowing grief, forsaken maid;
All mortal pleasures in a moment fade;
Our surest hope is in an hour destroyed,
And love, best gift of Heaven, not long enjoyed.

Methinks I see her frantic with despair,
Her streaming eyes, wrung hands, and flowing hair;
Her Mechlin pinners, rent, the floor bestrow,
And her torn fan gives real signs of woe.
Hence Superstition, that tormenting guest,
That haunts with fancied fears the coward breast;
No dread events upon this fate attend,
Stream, eyes, no more, no more thy tresses rend.
Though certain omens oft forewarn a state,
And dying lions show the monarch's fate;
Why should such fears bid Celia's sorrow rise?
For, when a lap-dog falls, no lover dies.

Cease, Celia, cease; restrain thy flowing tears,
Some warmer passion will dispel thy cares.
In man you'll find a more substantial bliss,
More grateful toying, and a sweeter kiss.
He's dead. Oh lay him gently in the ground!
And may his tomb be by this verse renowned:
'Here Shock, the pride of all his kind, is laid,
Who fawned like man, but ne'er like man betrayed.'





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