- The poem that I’ve chosen for my first
paper is “Epitaph to a dog” 1808 of Lord Byron, the poem it’s refereed to a dog
that Byron had. This dog was a
“The opening lines, long thought to have been written by his friend John Hobhouse. Byron had originally planned to use just the two lines as the inscription.” (http://www.wikipedia.org/Wiki/Epitaph_to_a_dog.).
“Boatswain lies buried at
Newstead Abbey and has a monument larger than his master’s. The inscription,
Byron’s “Epitaph to a dog”, has become one of his best-known works” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es)/.
.
The poem
is:
Near
this Spot
are
deposited the Remains of one
who
possessed Beauty without Vanity,
Strength
without Insolence,
Courage
without Ferosity,
and all
the virtues of Man without his Vices.
This
praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery
if
inscribed over human Ashes,
is but
a just tribute to the Memory of
BOATSWAIN,
a DOG,
who was
born in
and died
at Newstead Nov. 18, 1808.
1When
some proud Son of Man returns to Earth, A
Unknown by Glory, but upheld by
Birth,
A
The sculptor’s art exhausts the pomp of
woe, B
And storied urns record who rests
below. B
5When
all is done, upon the Tomb is seen, C
Not what he was, but what he should have
been. C
But the poor Dog, in life the firmest
friend,
D
The first to welcome, foremost to
defend,
D
Whose honest heart is still his Master’s
own, E
10Who
labors, fights, lives, breathes for him alone, E
Unhonored falls, unnoticed all his worth,
A
Denied in heaven the Soul he held on
earth – A
While man, vain insect! hopes to be forgiven, F
And claims himself a sole exclusive heaven. F
15Oh
man! thou feeble tenant of an hour, G
Debased by slavery, or corrupt by power –
G
Who knows thee well must quit thee with
disgust, H
Degraded mass of animated dust!
H
Thy love is lust, thy friendship all a
cheat, I
20Thy
smiles hypocrisy, thy words deceit! I
By nature vile, ennoble but by name,
J
Each kindred brute might bid thee blush
for shame. J
Ye, who perchance behold this simple urn,
K
Pass on – it honors none you wish to
mourn. K
25To
mark a friend’s remains these stones arise; L
I never knew but one – and here he
lies.[4]
L
The poem has 26 verses and
the poet uses a very simple rhyme scheme, based in the repetition of couplets. A
couplet is a pair of lines of verse that form a unit, and the rhyme that the
author uses is aa, bb, cc, dd, etc. But I don’t
understand, why the author repeats the first rhyme (aa)
at the 11º verse.
“Poetry in rhyming couplets
is one of the simplest rhyme schemes. This scheme was used in Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales in the 14º century and became popular again in the eighteenth
century with poets such as Dryden and Alexander Pope. Couplets can also play a
role in more complex rhyme schemes. For example, Shakespearean sonnets end with
a couplet. As examples of couplets are the paradoxist distich,
the tautological distich and the dualistic distich” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es/dotlrn/classes/c006/14217/c08c006a14217gC/file-storage/download/01Terminologia.htm?file%5fid=25735135).
The author uses tail rhymes
(a rhyme in the final syllable of a verse) in all the poem, the masculine rhyme
is the chosen by the poet. This rhyme has the stress on the final syllable words
(Ex. Disgust-dust, urn-mourn, etc.). I’ve found many different rhetorical
figures too: hyperbole (line 1, “Son of Man returns to Earth”), “use of
exaggerated terms for emphasis” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es/dotlrn/classes/c006/14217/c08c006a14217gC/file-storage/download/01Terminologia.htm?file%5fid=25735135)
; anthropomorphism (lines 4 and 25 “storied urns” ”these stones arise”),
“applying human or animal qualities to inanimate objects” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es/dotlrn/classes/etc...);
personification (lines 7 and 9, “the poor dog, in life the firmest friend”
“honest heart”), “Attributing a personality to some impersonal object” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es/dotlrn/classes/etc...);
metaphor (line 13,19 and 20, “While man, vain insect” “love is lust” “friendship
all a cheat” “smiles hypocrisy” “words deceit”), “An implied comparison of two
things” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es/dotlrn/classes/etc...);
allegory (lines 8-12, “The first to ... held on earth”), “An extended metaphor
in which a story is told to illustrate an important attribute of the subject”
(http://aulavirtual.uv.es/dotlrn/classes/etc...);
paradox (line 7, “The poor ... firmest friend”), “Use of apparently
contradictory ideas to point out some underlying truth” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es/dotlrn/classes/etc...);
periphrasis (lines 1 and 5-6, “When some ... returns to Earth” “When all ...
have been”), “Substitution of a word or a phrase for a proper name” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es/dotlrn/classes/etc...);
metonymy (line 18, “Degraded mass of animated dust”), “Substitution of a word to
suggest what is really meant” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es/dotlrn/classes/etc...); archaism (lines 19 and 20, “thy” that
means “you”), “Use of an obsolete, archaic, word” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es/dotlrn/classes/etc...)
and finally there is a malapropism (line 22,
“kindred”), “Using a word through confusion with a word that sounds similar” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es/dotlrn/classes/etc...).
Finally there are many different feet in the poem, the author uses the
trisyllables (“three syllables”) and the most used one is the anapaest (line 1
“turns-to-earth”; 2 “held-by-Birth”; 3 “pomp-of-woe”, 7 “fir-mest-friend”, etc.)
“short-short-long” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es/dotlrn/classes/etc...);
it also appears: the dactyl (line 6 “should-have-been”, 26 “here-he-lies”, 21
“words-de-ceit”) “long-short-short” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es/dotlrn/classes/etc...);
the tribrach (line 16 “by-po-wer”, 23 “sim-ple-urn”) “short-short-short” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es/dotlrn/classes/etc...);
etc.
“Lord Byron, was born in
The poet began his poetic
career when he was very young, more o less at 17 years old, his first volumes of
poetry were “Fugitive Pieces”1802, “printed by Ridge of Newark, which contained
poems written when Byron was only fourteen.” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es)/.
Later, he wrote a love poem “To Mary”,
and “Pieces in various Occasions” and “miraculously chaste” were published after
this one. In 1807, he create his culminating book
“Hours of Idleness”, which was very successful in the time. Finally, before he
went to war, he wrote our poem: “Epitaph to a dog” 1808. This poem isn’t too
much important, but it had its success, because the poem defined the author as
an animal lover. Later, Byron started a military career until 1833, when his
publisher released his complete works, one of the most important poems was “Don
Juan”: “a poem spanning 17 cantos, ranks as one of the most important long poems
published in England since Milton’s “Paradise Lost”. “Don Juan”, Byron’s
masterpiece, often called the epic of its time, has roots deep in literary
tradition and, although regarded by early Victorians as somewhat shocking,
equally involves itself with its own contemporary world at all levels –
social, political, literary and ideological.” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es)/.
Byron wrote “Epitaph to a
dog” because he was very sad for Boatswain, who had died of rabies. In its time,
this poem didn’t had many success, but it had its
success for the author, he made inscribe the poem on Boatswain tomb near his
house.
“Boatswain (the
It would became more famous nowadays, because there aren’t many poems
dedicated to animals in general and to a dog in particular. It has even more
success because is a very famous poet. An example are many animal links who use
the poem to decorate the web.(
http://www.la-spca.org/pet_loss/comfort/monument.htm)
Bibliography.
- http://www.wikipedia.org/Wiki/Epitaph_to_a_dog.)
- http://www.la-spca.org/pet_loss/comfort/monument.htm