[ Burns / The Twa Dogs ]
Robert Burns (1759 - 1796), poet and lyricist, is one of Scotland's most beloved cultural figures, perhaps best known now for that New Year's Eve classic, "Auld Lang Syne."
"The Twa Dogs," first published in 1786, features a discussion between a collie and a Newfoundland dog named Caesar, though he is identified as such only indirectly: "His hair, his size, his mouth, his lugs, / Shew'd he was nane o' Scotland's dogs; / whalpit some place far abroad, / Whare sailors gang to fish for cod" — that is, whelped in a far-away place where sailors go to fish for cod; at the time Newfoundland was famous for its cod fisheries. This poem is social and moral rather than canine in its thematic concerns.
As Burns' Scots dialect can be a challenge for readers today, those interested in seeing more of the poem can use this link to go to a Burns webpage that features Burns' original poem side-by-side with a rendering into modern English:
"The Twa Dogs" at The World Burns Club.
This poem is also noteworthy for being the basis of an oil painting by Sir Edwin Landseer, The Twa Dogs (1822), which is discussed here at The Cultured Newf. The Landseer Newfoundland who modeled for that painting, Neptune, was also the subject of two other paintings by Landseer: Newfoundland and Terrier at a Stream (1822) and Neptune (1824).
Burns' poem is the basis for another artwork as well, a sculpture entitled The Twa Dogs by the contemporary English sculptor Sally Matthews. Her sculpture is discussed here at The Cultured Newf.
image courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum
The Twa Dogs (1822)
by
Sir Edwin Landseer