Epitaph to a Dog
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"Epitaph to a Dog" (also sometimes referred to as "Inscription on the Monument to a Newfoundland Dog") is a poem by the British poet Lord Byron. It was written in 1808 in honour of his Newfoundland dog, Boatswain, who had just died of rabies. When Boatswain contracted the disease, Byron reportedly nursed him without any fear of becoming bitten and infected. The poem is inscribed on Boatswain's tomb, which is larger than Byron's, at
Newstead Abbey Newstead Abbey, in Nottinghamshire, England, was formerly an Augustinian priory. Converted to a domestic home following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it is now best known as the ancestral home of Lord Byron. Monastic foundation The prio ...
, Byron's estate. The sections above the poem form a memorial eulogy to Boatswain, and introduce the poem. Though often assumed to form part of the poem, they were written not by Byron but by his friend John Hobhouse.Atkins booskshelf: Epitaph to a Dog
2012, accessed 11 May 2016
A letter of 1830 by Hobhouse suggests that Byron had planned to use the last two lines of his poem by way of an introductory inscription, but found he preferred Hobhouse's comparison of the attributes of dogs and people.


Text


Renovation

The tomb underwent renovations in 1987.


References

{{Byron Poetry by Lord Byron 1808 poems