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THERE is sorrow enough in the natural way | |
From men and women to fill our day; | |
And when we are certain of sorrow in store, | |
Why do we always arrange for more? | |
Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware | 5 |
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear. | |
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Buy a pup and your money will buy | |
Love unflinching that cannot lie— | |
Perfect passion and worship fed | |
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head. | 10 |
Nevertheless it is hardly fair | |
To risk your heart for a dog to tear. | |
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When the fourteen years which Nature permits | |
Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits, | |
And the vet’s unspoken prescription runs | 15 |
To lethal chambers or loaded guns, | |
Then you will find—it’s your own affair— | |
But … you’ve given your heart to a dog to tear. | |
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When the body that lived at your single will, | |
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!). | 20 |
When the spirit that answered your every mood | |
Is gone—wherever it goes—for good, | |
You will discover how much you care, | |
And will give your heart to a dog to tear. | |
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We’ve sorrow enough in the natural way, | 25 |
When it comes to burying Christian clay. | |
Our loves are not given, but only lent, | |
At compound interest of cent per cent. | |
Though it is not always the case, I believe, | |
That the longer we’ve kept ’em, the more do we grieve: | 30 |
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong, | |
A short-time loan is as bad as a long— | |
So why in—Heaven (before we are there) | |
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?
Rudyard Kipling |
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ALL ANIMALS GO TO HEAVEN AND WATCH AS FROM THE STARS.
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