ADVICE TO A DOG PAINTER

Happiest of the spaniel race,
Painter, with thy colors grace,
Draw his forehead large and high,
Draw his blue and humid eye;

Draw his neck, so smooth and round,
Little neck with ribands bound;
And the musely swelling breast
Where the Loves and Graces rest;

And the spreading, even back,
Soft, and sleek, and glossy black;
And the tail that gently twines,
Like the tendrils of the vines;

And the silky twisted hair,
Shadowing thick the velvet ear;
Velvet ears which, hanging low,
O’er the veiny temples flow.

Jonathan Swift.
As published in “The Dog’s Book of Verse” Collected by J. Earl Clauson
A Public Domain Work.