[Prentis / "Engraved on the Collar of a Newfoundland Dog"]

Stephen Prentis (1800 -1852) was an English poet and editor, almost unknown now; in his lifetime he had a small reputation, primarily for his humorous verse. He spent much of his adult life living in France, and published most of his works privately, for circulation among his friends only.

This poem is from An Apology for Lord Byron, with Miscellaneous Poems by Stephen Prentis (London: James Macrone, 1836).

This volume was published only four years after Lord Byron's death, and begins with a preface that apologizes more for the volume itself than for Lord Byron — a "singular and singularly gifted man" — whose iniquities are duly noted.

The following is one of the "miscellaneous poems" of the title, though it does have a strong connection to Lord Byron, famous in Newfie circles for his "Inscription on the Monument of a Newfoundland Dog"; Prentis' poem very closely parallels the thematic implications of Byron's "Inscription...":

"Engraved on the Collar of a Newfoundland Dog"

When Cain, vile Man! had prov'd your nature prone
To make the brute's worst attributes your own.
Just Heav'n transferr'd, to keep the balance true,
To me those gifts it wasted upon you.
Save Reason, to conceive the serpent, Spite,
And Speech, to throw the viper into light.
Thus, to the truth though Pride would have us blind,
In th' other each his long-lost self may find!

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.engraved on the collar of a newfoundland dog