Turns out, many poets have taken up the pen to capture the essence of man’s best friend. In these poems about dogs, a variety of poets tackle distilling fido’s spirit into verse, with quirky, poignant, and happy dog poems among them. From Emily Dickinson to Pablo Neruda, this selection of poets demonstrate the range of ways we relate to dogs in these short dog poems. And if you’re looking for rainbow bridge poems, skip to the end for a few of the best dog poems for those in grief.
1. “A little Dog That Wags His Tail” by Emily Dickinson (excerpt)
A little Dog that wags his tail And knows no other joy Of such a little Dog am I Reminded by a Boy
2. “The Dog” by Ogden Nash (excerpt)
The truth I do not stretch or shove
3. “Little Dog’s Rhapsody into the Night” by Mary Oliver (read by Mary Oliver)
4. “The New Dog” by Linda Pastan (excerpt)
this manic animal
5. “Bereavement” by Kevin Young (excerpt)
I’ve begun to think of them as my father’s other sons, as kin. Brothers-in-paw. My eyes each day thaw. One day the water cuts off. Then back on.
6. “A Dog in San Francisco” by Michael Ondaatje (excerpt)
Sitting in an empty house with a dog from the Mexican Circus! O Daisy, embrace is my only pleasure. Holding and hugging my friends. Education. A wave of eucalyptus. Warm granite. These are the things I have in my heart. Heart and skills, there’s nothing else.
7. “Bitch Is A Word I Hear A Lot” by Kim Parko (excerpt)
I hate the word, and I guess that’s why it is said? People love to hurt one another. It is what makes us human. I do love dogs. They don’t seem to be evil unless humans make them that way.
8. “The Dogs at Live Oak Beach, Santa Cruz” by Alicia Ostriker
9. “Lost Dog” by Ellen Bass (excerpt)
Every time I look at him, the wide head resting on outstretched paws, joy does another lap around the racetrack of my heart. Even in sleep when I turn over to ease my bad hip, I’m suffused with contentment.
10. “Waiting for Happiness” by Nomi Stone (excerpt)
Dog knows when friend will come home because each hour friend’s smell pales, air paring down the good smell with its little diamond. It means I miss you
11. “Dog” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (read by Bill Murray)
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) March 18, 2018
12. “Dog Around the Block” by E.B. White (excerpt)
Dog around the block, sniff, Hydrant sniffing, corner, grating, Sniffing, always, starting forward, Backward, dragging, sniffing backward, Leash at taut, leash at dangle, Leash in people’s feet entangle—
13. “When Buying A Dog” by Jay Ward (performed by Jay Ward)
14. “Dharma” by Billy Collins (excerpt)
The way the dog trots out the front door every morning without a hat or an umbrella, without any money or the keys to her doghouse never fails to fill the saucer of my heart with milky admiration.
15. “I’ll Never Forget A Dog Named Beau” by Jimmy Stewart (read by Jimmy Stewart)
16. “we have no choice in the bodies that hold us” by Holly Amos (excerpt)
Thing of dirt and water and oxygen marked by thinking and reacting and a couch one may or may not be permitted to sleep on. He may not permit me to touch him or to take the bone
17. “A Dog Has Died” by Pablo Neruda, Translated from the Spanish by Alfred Yankauer (excerpt)
No, my dog used to gaze at me, paying me the attention I need, the attention required to make a vain person like me understand that, being a dog, he was wasting time, but, with those eyes so much purer than mine, he’d keep on gazing at me with a look that reserved for me alone all his sweet and shaggy life, always near me, never troubling me, and asking nothing.
18. “Half Border and Half Lab” by Heather McHugh (excerpt)
Customs and chemistry made a name for themselves and it was Spot. He’s gone to some utopos now, the dirty dog, doctor of crotches, digger of holes. Your airy clarities be damned, he loved our must and our mistakes — why hit him, then, who did us good? He’s dead, he ought to be at home. He’s damned put out, and so am I. Want more literary dogs? We’ve got your best dog books, bookish gifts for pets, and a quiz to find out which literary dog you are.
