Epitaph on a Lap-Dog by Robert Burns
An epitaph for a lap-dog named Echo calls on woodland singers to mourn and screeching creatures to rejoice: Echo's silence halves both song and din.
By Robert Burns · Genre: Epigram, Humor, Animal Poetry · 74 words
First lines
Named Echo
In wood and wild, ye warbling throng, / Your heavy loss deplore; / Now, half extinct your powers of song, / Sweet Echo is no more.
Ye jarring, screeching things around, / Scream your discordant joys; / Now, half your din of tuneless sound / With Echo silent lies.
Genres
- Epigram — Two brief rhyming stanzas turn Echo's death into a pointed contrast between diminished song and diminished noise.
- Humor — The name Echo supplies the joke that the dog's silence removes half the pleasing song and half the unpleasant din.
- Animal Poetry — The lap-dog's epitaph addresses warbling and screeching creatures about the consequences of Echo's death.
Tags
dogs · epitaphs · echoes · animal death · comic verse
What this Textopian page supports
Epitaph on a Lap-Dog is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Burns
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Epigram, Humor, Animal Poetry
- Length: 74 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
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