A dog has died

My dog has died.
I buried him in the garden
next to a rusted old machine.

Some day I'll join him right there,
but now he's gone with his shaggy coat,
his bad manners and his cold nose,
and I, the materialist, who never believed
in any promised heaven in the sky
for any human being,
I believe in a heaven I'll never enter.
Yes, I believe in a heaven for all dogdom
where my dog waits for my arrival
waving his fan-like tail in friendship.

Ai, I'll not speak of sadness here on earth,
of having lost a companion
who was never servile.
His friendship for me, like that of a porcupine
withholding its authority,
was the friendship of a star, aloof,
with no more intimacy than was called for,
with no exaggerations:
he never climbed all over my clothes
filling me full of his hair or his mange,
he never rubbed up against my knee
like other dogs obsessed with sex.

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.

Ai, how many times have I envied his tail

as we walked together on the shores of the sea in the lonely winter of Isla Negra
where the wintering birds filled the sky
and my hairy dog was jumping about
full of the voltage of the sea's movement:
my wandering dog, sniffing away
with his golden tail held high,
face to face with the ocean's spray.

Joyful, joyful, joyful,
as only dogs know how to be happy
with only the autonomy
of their shameless spirit.

There are no good-byes for my dog who has died,
and we don't now and never did lie to each other.

So now he's gone and I buried him,
and that's all there is to it.

Pablo Neruda 

Poem analysis (point form)

“My dog has died.
I buried him in the garden
next to a rusted old machine.
Someday I'll join him right there,
but now he's gone with his shaggy coat”

•  Decomposed→ he’s just bones
•  This could mean that it’s been quite a long time since the dog passed on
•  Still thinking about the dog despite the period of time that has passed

“His bad manners* and his cold nose,
and I, the materialist, who never believed"

•      Materialist→need/love for man-made objects à something that is real/can be seen/can be calculated or measure OR proven by science
•           This would further emphasize why he doesn’t believe in God à religion is rather abstract and science & religion is considered very different
• 
  

“in any promised heaven in the sky
for any human being,
I believe in a heaven I'll never enter.”

•           No after life→ does not believe in life after death à typical science type or logical, non-abstract kind of person
•          He doesn’t believe in a heaven à maybe he believes that he will simply die?
• 
  

"Yes, I believe in a heaven for all dogdom”

•         This could mean a dog park?→ usually have toy castles for dogs to enjoy

“where my dog waits for my arrival
waving his fan-like tail in friendship.”

•        Ironic→ he doesn’t believe that his dog passed on even though it has already been proven clinically dead
•           This could mean that the love from his dog has made him more open-minded and changed him to accept abstract ideas like love
•           And perhaps this love he is experiencing now is the reason why he can’t seem to accept the fact that his dog has already died
•           AND he clearly states at the beginning that his dog has died.
•          Maybe he has memories of going to the dog park with his dog→ is it a significant memory à eg. His first time out with the dog?
• 
  

"Ai, I'll not speak of sadness here on earth,”

•         Sadness is a feeling that cannot be measured→some sort of abstract concept? Definitely not science or maths
•           Irony→ he’s actually not an all-round science person as he tries to be→he still has feelings
•          Sounds like he’s trying to hide his feelings/doesn’t want to show them→ is he trying to achieve something?→ trying to keep his feelings locked up because he cannot understand or doesn’t know how to handle them??

“of having lost a companion
who was never servile.”

•         Definition of servile: of or pertaining to a condition of servitude or property ownership in which a person is held as a slave or as partially enslaved→ the dog was never something he could own
•            Something that couldn’t be owned like an estate→ maybe he lacked interaction with people who had feelings like him→didn’t know everything was not black or white
•           The dog had feelings and a soul that was beyond understanding of science
•            So the dog was something he has never encountered before in his life→ that is why it is so SIGNIFICANT→something different
•            This opened up his constricted mind→ the poem increasingly becomes more IRONIC

“His friendship for me, like that of a porcupine”

•         Spikes = shield→the dog protective of his owner? OR
•         Spikes = pain→ perhaps because of their differences, it was hard for them to agree and it must be something that required a huge amount of effort for them to come to terms or at least accept each other

“withholding its authority,
was the friendship of a star, aloof,”

•     But because of the pain and difference in interest (definition of aloof), their friendship was VERY strong→just like how North and South poles of the magnet are always attracted to each other no matter how far you pull them apart
•      Star = everlasting→because of the immense strength of their bond between friends, their friendship would be last forever no matter what

“with no more intimacy than was called for,”

·         Their friendship pure and innocent OR

·         Friendship constricted

“with no exaggerations:
he never climbed all over my clothes*”

•      *how is this ‘bad manners’? Did the dog actually change?

“filling me full of his hair or his mange,
he never rubbed up against my knee
like other dogs obsessed with sex.”

•       From ‘His friendship for me……’ to this line shows how the dog understands his owner → perhaps, the dog has actually been INFLUENCED by the owner’s ways just like how he influence the persona
•       This could contribute the purpose of the poem

“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.”

•           Even if the dog could help the persona, how can he help?→ because he experiences things that are different from the persona’s, he can only watch
•           Or is he actually helping by staying by his side
•           Perhaps this is a way for people to solve their problems→ most of the time, they just need someone to be by their side and that is enough
•           The dog also asked for nothing à because he knows that the persona also cannot help him but simply be by his side

“Ai, how many times have I envied his tail
as we walked together on the shores of the sea
in the lonely winter of Isla Negra”

•        Does this further emphasize that he has never really interacted with other people before?→ but he has the dog so why is he still lonely?→ is it because the dog differs from him so he lacks the ability to understand what the persona is going through or at least he is unable to relate to him?

“where the wintering birds filled the sky
and my hairy dog was jumping about
full of the voltage of the sea's movement:
my wandering dog, sniffing away
with his golden tail held high,
face to face with the ocean's spray.
Joyful, joyful, joyful,
as only dogs know how to be happy”

•       Is he upset that the dog cannot empathise with him?→what if that is only what he sees?

“with only the autonomy
of their shameless spirit.”

•       This gives off the impression that the persona does not really enjoy living his life right now because he is too free?

“There are no good-byes for my dog who has died,
and we don't now and never did lie to each other.”

•        Why should they lie to each other when both of them do not interest in the same thing?→ does this mean that this is the most honest and purest type of friendship?

“So now he's gone and I buried him,
and that's all there is to it.”

•         The persona has accepted the fact that the dog is gone
•         The last line seems like he is trying to convince himself, rather, that that is how he feels about the death of his dog à is this perhaps a defense mechanism towards the overwhelming feeling of loss and love for his dog?

Poem analysis

     The poem is about a man who is reminiscing about his dog and thinking about how the animal has changed his outlook on life. The man seems to be a very logical and science type of person who only seem to believe in things that can be seen, calculated or measured. He does not believe in abstract ideas such as religion as shown in “I, the materialist, who never believed in any promised heaven in the sky” and this suggests that he does not believe there is a place made by a higher being for the souls who passed on. This is possible because science could not prove where souls went after death. He then said that he “believe in a heaven for all dogdom” which can suggest a dog park – a place where there is toy castles for dogs to have fun in. What he says next is “where my dog waits for my arrival” and this does not make any sense because the dog is already dead. This makes it ironic how the dog is already clinically dead, as clearly stated at the start of the poem by him, however he still believes that his dog was waiting for him. The sentence 'but now he's gone with his shaggy coat, his bad manners and his cold nose' lists out the negative traits and features about the poet's dog but nonetheless, the poet still wishes to join his dog, disregarding the things about his dog that are not positive. This tells the reader that the poet loves his dog extremely much and to the extent where even the negative things about his dog are not an issue to him.

From the sentence 'and I, the materialist, who never believed in any promised heaven in the sky for any human being, I believe in a heaven I'll never enter', the reader can tell that the poet does not believe in a heaven meant for humans to enter when the pass on. However, he believes in a heaven made for dogs. This shows that the poet has such great love for dogs, or specifically, his dog. The poet says so himself that he's a materialist but yet believes in a heaven meant for dogs. This tells us something especially since the poet himself is human and he imagines something good for dogs and not for humans. But at the same time, since the poet refers to the heaven as a place meant only for dogs, then why does he say that his dog will be waiting for him there? Perhaps the poet is trying to suggest that the death of his dog has caused him so much grief that his imagination and thoughts are starting to run wild and thus causing him to believe that he'll be able to enter that particular heaven as well.

In the sentence 'Ai, how many times I have envied his tail as we walked together on the shores of the sea', The tail is a symbol of the dog’s inner emotional self and whilst they are on the beach the dog is happy whatever the circumstances. The poet then implies that the same does not necessarily apply to him. This is suggested in the third line “In the lonely winter of Isla Negra.” The words ‘lonely winter’ sums up Neruda’s feelings about the nature of the place in this season of the year, and that the dog is oblivious to such matters.

Probably the reason why the poet is so caught up with the death of his dog is because his dog has helped him come to realize the little joys in life and that realizing the present happiness is what's most important.