EPITAPH TO A DOG / EPITAFFIO A UN CANE
EPITAPH TO A DOG, Lord Byron – 1788-1824 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 at Newfoundland May 1803, and died in Newstead Abbey, Nov. 18th, 1808. (Epigraph of John Hobhouse) When some proud Son of Man returns to Earth, Unknown to Glory but upheld by Birth, The sculptor’s art exhausts the pomp of woe, And storied urns record who rests below: When all is done, upon the Tomb is seen Not what he was, but what he should have been. But the poor Dog, in life the firmest friend, The first to welcome, foremost to defend, Whose honest heart is still his Master’s own, Who labors, fights, lives, breathes for him alone, Unhonour’d falls, unnotic’d all his worth, Deny’d in heaven the Soul he hel...