To a Dog

LibriVox volunteers bring you 22 recordings of To a Dog by John Jay Chapman, published in 1917. This was the Weekly Poetry project for November 6th, 2011 to mark this year's festivals of remembrance.

Chapman's son Victor was the first American pilot to lose his life in aerial combat, while serving with the Escadrille Américaine in the First World War. This poem tells of the heartbreak of a bereaved father; the sentiment, though attributed to the son's dog, is familiar to all who have lost someone they loved, in peace or war. (Introduction by Ruth Golding)