The Fourth Sunday of Advent: The Dog

The invading Romans greatly admired the war-dogs deployed by their British foes. These beasts, known as Pugnaces Britanniae, are widely thought to be the ancestors of the English mastiff and, perhaps, the bulldog. My own dog, a rescued bullmastiff, is, as the name implies, a cross of both breeds. The Romans prized these animals and adopted them into their own ranks. In heraldry, they symbolize peculiar fidelity.

talbot: a "dog of scent," probably some species of the mastiff

guardant: walking in profile with face turned toward the viewer

tenné: tawny

vert: green

Talbot guardant, tenné on vert field,

Elected silence of my solitude.

Your muscled shuffle, muzzled snuffle yield

In hedge and sedge rich scents in plenitude.

The antique Romans feared the vasty mass

Of blood and bone pugnacious Britons bred

That by my side pads deep now in damp moss

And nuzzles to my hand that massy head.

The widow had no power of jowl or jaw

Yet, brutal pugilist, bruited her suit

Before the bar of disregarding law

And struck the knockout blow like brawling brute.

We cry "Come!" as the bowling year rolls 'round:

God grant grace we in faith may then be found.