Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON A SMALL DOG by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN

Poet Analysis

First Line: ANIMULA VAGULA BLANDULA, FOUNDLING DEAR
Last Line: AND SO TO SLEEP.
Subject(s): ANIMALS; DEATH - ANIMALS; DOGS; TOKYO;
@3thrust out in a Tokyo scene soon after his birth, and rescued in vain@1

@3Animula vagula blandula,@1 foundling dear,
So deep a hold have you already won
On our tired hearts? so great a joy have you to give?
So sharp a fear?
Can your tininess unseal so hot a tear
And prayer, that you should live?
Like these cherry-flowers here
Whose life thin-spun
Seems by its own ghost haunted -- but no more words!
Save, all heaven's luck befriend you,
Blind eyes and feeling hands,
That take us for all-surety and all-love,
And so to sleep.





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