Classic Poem

ON THE DEATH OF A SMALL BUT BEAUTIFUL GREYHOUND .

Adieu to thy innocent mirth,
Thou creature of frolic and glee!
That stretch'd at thy length on the hearth,
Wert as happy as happy could be.

What a full tide of joy didst thou feel
Within thy diminutive breast!
And a spring, more elastic than steel,
Into thy little form was comprest.

Agility, beauty, and grace,
Strove which in thy shape should prevail;
And the features of each we might trace,
In the line from thy head to thy tail.

How oft with delight did I gaze,
Thy pranks with the kitten to see!
But now her own gambols she plays,
And mews as chief mourner for thee.

Ah, say, in this sublunar sphere,
Is there such a profusion of bliss,
That death for a while could not spare
Such an atom of pleasure as this?

Yet that atom, for aught I can tell,
In the beam of a summer more bright,
Like a seed, may unfold and may swell,
To frolic in future delight.

ON THE DEATH OF A SMALL BUT BEAUTIFUL GREYHOUND .

Adieu to thy innocent mirth,
Thou creature of frolic and glee!
That stretch'd at thy length on the hearth,
Wert as happy as happy could be.

What a full tide of joy didst thou feel
Within thy diminutive breast!
And a spring, more elastic than steel,
Into thy little form was comprest.

Agility, beauty, and grace,
Strove which in thy shape should prevail;
And the features of each we might trace,
In the line from thy head to thy tail.

How oft with delight did I gaze,
Thy pranks with the kitten to see!
But now her own gambols she plays,
And mews as chief mourner for thee.

Ah, say, in this sublunar sphere,
Is there such a profusion of bliss,
That death for a while could not spare
Such an atom of pleasure as this?

Yet that atom, for aught I can tell,
In the beam of a summer more bright,
Like a seed, may unfold and may swell,
To frolic in future delight.