Page:Poems Barrett.djvu/253

Like a lady's ringlets brown,
Flow thy silken ears adown
 Either side demurely,
Of thy silver-suited breast
Shining out from all the rest
 Of thy body purely.

Darkly brown thy body is,
Till the sunshine, striking this,
 Alchemise its dulness,—
When the sleek curls manifold
Flash all over into gold,
 With a burnished fulness.

Underneath my stroking hand,
Startled eyes of hazel bland
 Kindling, growing larger,—
Up thou leapest with a spring,
Full of prank and curvetting,
 Leaping like a charger.

Leap! thy broad tail waves a light;
Leap! thy slender feet are bright,
 Canopied in fringes.
Leap—those tasselled ears of thine
Flicker strangely, fair and fine,
 Down their golden inches.

Yet, my pretty sportive friend,
Little is't to such an end
 That I praise thy rareness!
Other dogs may be thy peers
Haply in these drooping ears,
 And this glossy fairness.

But of thee it shall be said,
This dog watched beside a bed
 Day and night unweary,—