To Flush, My Dog.

Like a lady's ringlets brown,
Flow thy silken ears adown

Darkly brown thy body is,
Till the sunshine striking this

Underneath my stroking hand,
Startled eyes of hazel bland

Leap! thy broad tail waves a light,
Leap! thy slender feet are bright,

Yet, my pretty, sportive friend,
Little is't to such an end

But of thee it shall be said,
This dog watched beside a bed

Roses, gathered for a vase,
In that chamber died apace,

Other dogs in thymy dew
Tracked the hares and followed through

Other dogs of loyal cheer
Bounded at the whistle clear,

And if one or two quick tears
Dropped upon his glossy ears

And this dog was satisfied
If a pale thin hand would glide

This dog, if a friendly voice
Call him now to blither choice

Therefore to this dog will I,
Tenderly not scornfully,

And because he loves me so,
Better than his kind will do

Blessings on thee, dog of mine,
Pretty collars make thee fine,

Downy pillow take thy head,
Silken coverlid bestead,

Whiskered cats arointed flee,
Sturdy stoppers keep from thee

Mock I thee, in wishing weal? --
Tears are in my eyes to feel

Yet be blessed to the height
Of all good and all delight

Elizabeth Barrett (1806-1861)

First published in 1844, Barrett, a self-confessed "philo-dogist", believed her cocker spaniel to possess a remarkable intelligence and even the capacity for literacy. Flush could recognize the letters A and B, and it was only a matter of patience according to his mistress, before he mastered the rest of the alphabet.

Robert Browning was not terribly fond of the dog because it bit him the first time he called on Elizabeth, but was wise enough to hold his tongue. Flush was a close observer of Barrett's clandestine romance with Browning and their elopement to Italy. Kidnapped three times Flush was no stranger to his own drama and a common occurrence in the 1840's of London dogs of the genteel classes, and Barrett had to pay a heavy ransom.

So interesting was little Flush's life Virginia Woolf wrote a parody called Flush: A Biography (1933). Woolf found that "the figure of their dog made me laugh so I couldn't resist making him a Life".

Barret's mystical, opium-inspired (because they used opium at the time to treat her tuberculosis) sentimental voice in this poem was the beginning of what would become a part of the body of work that established Barrett as a major Victorian poet.

*Elizabeth Barrett notes: This dog was the gift of my dear and admired friend, Miss Mitford, and belongs to the beautiful race she has rendered celebrated among English and American readers. The Flushes have their laurels as well as the Cæsars, -- the chief difference (at least the very head and front of it) consisting, according to my perception, in the baldhead.

for Cosmo, Kiki, and Sam.

Sources:

Literary Encyclopedia:
www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5105

Public domain text taken from
http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem245.html

CST Approved.