The Dog Died

Good people all, of every sort,
Give ear unto my song;
And if you find it wondrous short,
It cannot hold you long.

In Islington there was a man,
Of whom the world might say
That still a godly race he ran,
Whene'er he went to pray.

A kind and gentle heart he had,
To comfort friends and foes;
The naked every day he clad,
When he put on his clothes.

And in that town a dog was found,
As many dogs there be,
Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound,
And curs of low degree.

The dog and man at first were friends;
But when a pique began,
The dog, to gain some private ends,
Went mad, and bit the man.

Around from all the neighboring streets,
The wondering neighbors ran,
And swore the dog had lost his wits
To bite so good a man.

The wound it seemed both sore and sad
To every Christian eye;
And while they swore the dog was mad
They swore the man would die.

But soon a wonder came to light,
That showed the rogues they lied;
The man recovered of the bite,
The dog it was that died.

This is the 1766 writing of Oliver Goldsmith, called "An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog."

The British author was born in 1728 and died in 1774( aged 45). This poem is an excerpt from Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield. It was made into a children's illustrated book a century after Goldsmith's death by Randolph Caldecott. Rudolph was another British artist born in 1846 and died in 1886 (aged 39 years). You can read the children's illustrated book here

^Source


It had been two centuries and a half (250 years) since this satirical poem was written. But the words on it, written with simple rhymes to entertain, still holds some undeniable truth today. That is especially true of this part

The wound it seemed both sore and sad
To every Christian eye;
And while they swore the dog was mad
They swore the man would die.

People are always quick to jump to conclusion and follow the trend in their thought processes. That is the perfect definition of the herd mentality or bandwagon effect. That everybody is doing or saying it does not make it right. A lie perpetuated by thousands does not make it the truth.

There is need to stand up to your own belief regardless of what the masses are up to. The society already sentences the devotee to death, but alas it was the dog that died.

It could be hard for forming and holding firm to your belief or principle against the tsunami opinion, sarcastic remarks, suggestion from the society. But be rest assured that "dog" would soon die much to the chagrin of the naysayers.

This elegy is the simplest I have seen but packed with a lot of messages all different depending on who it is that is reading it. Thanks for your time and feel free to drop some comments below.

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^{Image from free image site: pexels.com}