Two of a Trade

“With such a dear companion at my side.”—-Wordsworth.

Oh! marvellous Boy, what marvel when
I met thy Dog and thee,
I marvell’d if to dogs or men
You traced your ancestry!

If changed from what you once were known,
As sorrow turns to joy,
The Boy more like the Dog had grown,
The Dog more like the Boy.

It would a prophet’s eyesight baulk,
To see through time’s dark fog,
If on four legs the Boy will walk,
Or if on two the Dog.

Oh pair! what were ye both at first?
The one a feeble pup;
A babe the other, fondly nursed—
How have ye been brought up?

Oh, Boy! and wert thou once a child,
A cherub small and soft,
On whom two human beings smiled,
And pray’d for, oft and oft?

A creature, rosy, plump and fair,
Half meekness and half joy;
A wingless angel with light hair!—
Oh! wert thou, Butcher-boy?

A thing more gentle, laughing, light,
More blythe, more full of play,
Than e’er he was—that luckless wight!—
The lamb you stuck to-day?

And thou, O Dog, with deep-set eyes,
Wert thou, like Love, once blind;
With helpless limbs, of pigmy size,
And voice that scarcely whined?

How grew your legs so like to his,
Your growl so like his tone?
And when did he first see your phiz
Reflected in his own?

Bravely have both your likeness worn;
Alike, without, within;
Brethren ye are, and each was born,
Like Happiness, “a twin!”

Yet can it be, oh! Butcher-boy,
Thou com’st of Adam’s race?
Then Adam’s gold has much alloy!—
Was this his form and face?

Art thou descended from the pair
From whom the Cæsars came?
Wore Alexander such an air?
Look’d Cheops much the same?

And thou, oh! Butcher’s cur, is’t true
That thy first parents e’er
From Eden’s garden lapp’d the dew,
And breathed in rapture there?

Yes! those from whom you spring, no doubt,
Who lived like dogs, and died,
Must once have follow’d Eve about,
And walk’d by Adam’s side.

L. B.