Category: 1900s

Categories
1900s Poem

The Dog to the Man

The Dog to the Man

By Clinton Dangerfield [1]
Annotations by Kathryn T. Burt
J. Alden Weir[2], Hunter and Dogs, ca. 1912, oil on canvas, 36 x 32 1/8 in.. Smithsonian American Art Museum, gift of Mrs. Charles Burlingham, 1973.50. CCO.
We two, we two, in dead primeval days[3]
    Swore to be allies[4]. Through strange fields and wide,
Pregnant with snarling dangers, across streams
     Where misbegotten monsters lashed the tide.

Through canon rifts, formed when chaotic strength
    Tore open many a mountain's shaken heart,
I followed you—in peril or in peace
    Anxiously swift to do a faithful part.

Century after century passed away.
    The nations changed; but I have never changed.[5]
Loyal I follow still the feet of man,
    A loyal friend who cannot be estranged.

Yet now life's complex ways bewilder me.
    My false alarms your patience often fret,
And I am made ashamed![6] But countless years
    Have linked us two. And shall we then forget?
Dangerfield, Clinton. “The Dog to the man.” The Youth’s companion, Aug. 1904, 398.

[1] Clinton Dangerfield is the pen name of Ella Howard Bryan.

[2] Learn about Weir and his artwork at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

[3] Current research places the domestication of wild dogs somewhere between 15,000-20,000 years ago in Eurasia (Perri).

[4] Many archaeologists theorize humans initially domesticated dogs for hunting purposes, though by 1912 dogs in America had taken on roles as home and livestock guardians, sled dogs, herding dogs, and companions (Miklósi et al.).

[5] At the turn of the 19th century, America was dealing with a number of political, industrial, and population changes. You can learn more about this tumultuous time from the Library of Congress.

[6] Have you ever heard an adult get upset when their dog barks at nothing? That frustration is probably what the dog narrating this poem is talking about in these lines.

Contexts

Briefly describe contemporaneous events, literary, political, or historical (for example, I could augment “The Great Blue Heron” with information about bird extinction, the Audubon Society, or the Lacey Act). This information could also include a description of a selection’s placement in an anthology, or it could include materials like music. Anything you think will interest readers and/or help scholars is fair game.

Resources for Further Study
  • Bethke, Brandi, And Burtt, Amanda, Eds. Dogs: Archaeology Beyond Domestication. Gainsville: University Press Of Florida, 2020.
  • Miklósi, Ádám, Tamás Faragó, Claudia Fugazza, Márta Gácsi, Enikő Kubinyi, Péter Pongrácz, And József Topál. The Dog: A Natural History. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018.
Pedagogy

Since this poem is meant to be a dog speaking his thoughts to his owner, consider writing a response. If this poem’s narrator was your dog, what would you say? Bonus points if you write your response as a poem!

Contemporary Connections

“Contemporary Connections”—thoughts about texts’ current significance.

Categories
1900s Poem

Little Boy Bad and Little Girl Rude

Little Boy Bad and Little Girl Rude

By Madison Julius Cawein
Annotations by Maggie Kelly
Frederic Dorr Steele. Boy and Girl in Cemetery. Drawing in ink, c. 1910. Library of
Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.
I 
Little Boy Bad, a way he had
Of making his father and mother mad;
Until one day he ran away
To a wood where the cats of the witches stay.
And there he tarried awhile to play,
For a little while in the witches' way.

II 
When night drew nigh he heard a cry,
And in every bush he saw an eye.
Then, three by three, from every tree
Big coal-black cats came stealthily,
With great green eyes that seemed to be
As big as the moon in a graveyard tree.

III 
Upon the ground they ringed him round,
And glared at him without a sound;
And with the glare he felt his hair
Rise slowly, slowly in despair,
While hard he shook from feet to hair.

IV 
Then down the gloom, upon her broom,
An old hag-witch came shrieking, “Room!”
Then snarled, “Hold tight! You're mine to-night!”
And grabbed and whisked him out of sight.—
And no one's seen him since that night.
Rosina Emmet Sherwood. The Witch and the Fat School Boy.
Pen and ink drawing, c. 1888. Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.
V  
Little Girl Rude was never good,
And never did the thing she should.
And so one day she ran away
To a wood where the owls of the goblins stay:
And there for a while she stopped to play,
For a little while in the goblins' way.

VI  
When night drew near she seemed to hear
A noise of wings in the ivy sere;
Then a hooting cry went shuddering by;
And in every tree she saw an eye,
A great round eye in each tree near by.

VII  
Then, two by two, from the ivy flew
Gaunt ghost-gray owls with eyes steel-blue:
And, wing to wing, within a ring,
Around her they began to swing,
And made the woods with hootings ring.

VIII  
And, as the brood tu-whit-tu-whooed,
Oh, how she wished she had been good!
Her hair arose; from head to toes
Her marrow slowly, slowly froze,
While hard she shivered, teeth and toes.

IX 
And then she saw a hairy claw
Reach from beneath and clutch and draw,
Till in the ground her feet she found
While goblin laughter circled round.—
And since that night she's not been found.
Elizabeth Shippen Green Elliott. I’m Here, She
Announced Timidly, To Whom it Might Concern.
Charcoal drawing, c. 1905. Library of Congress
Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.

Cawein, Madison Julius. “Little Boy Bad And Little Girl Rude,” in The Giant and the Star: Little Annals in Rhyme, 139. Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1909.

Contexts

The entire text of Cawein’s book is available through the University of Michigan’s American Verse Project.

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