[ Cook / "A Song for the Dog" ]
The text of this poem is taken from volume 3 of Poems by Eliza Cook (3 vols, London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1848), 37 - 40. The poem may have been first printed a few years prior to this book publication, but I have not yet found an exact date of first publication.
This poem is a delightful celebration of many of the good things dogs do for humanity; the full poem celebrates dogs as guides for the blind, as shepherd's helpers, as hunting dogs, as companions even of the downtrodden and homeless, as rescuers of travellers lost in snow — and, specifically naming the Newfoundland, as rescuers of those in need of extraction from the water. It's worth noting that the Newfoundland is the only breed identified by name in this poem.
Only the 2 stanzas (lines 33 - 40) remarking on the Newfoundland rescuing a child who has fallen into the water are reproduced below, but the full text is available here. Worth reading — it's a charmer.
The lisping child snatches the blossom and brake
That spring by the side of the blue-bosomed lake;
Till, heedless with laughter, he slips from the brink,
And a horror-struck mother beholdeth him sink.
But hark — there's a plunge; a brave diver is out,
Whose ready zeal needs no encouraging shout;
'Tis the Newfoundland playmate — the soulless, the mute —
And God's beautiful image is saved by the brute.