{
 "id": "edward-thomas/man-and-dog",
 "title": "Man and Dog",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Edward Thomas",
 "poet_slug": "edward-thomas",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Last Poems",
 "book_slug": "last-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 65,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1918,
  "venue": "Last Poems (1918)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22732"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/edward-thomas_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22423",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22732",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/Collected_Poems/LMsEAQAAIAAJ",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/Two_Poems/3ycPAAAAQAAJ"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 48,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 57,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“ ’Twill take some getting.” “Sir, I think ’twill so.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The old man stared up at the mistletoe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That hung too high in the poplar’s crest for plunder",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of any climber, though not for kissing under:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then he went on against the north-east wind⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Straight but lame, leaning on a staff new-skinned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Carrying a brolly, flag-basket, and old coat⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Towards Alton, ten miles off. And he had not",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Done less from Chilgrove where he pulled up docks.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twere best, if he had had “a money-box,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To have waited there till the sheep cleared a field",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For what a half-week’s flint-picking would yield.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His mind was running on the work he had done",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Since he left Christchurch in the New Forest, one",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spring in the seventies⁠—navvying on dock and line",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From Southampton to Newcastle-on-Tyne⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In seventy-four a year of soldiering",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the Berkshires⁠—hoeing and harvesting",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In half the shires where corn and couch will grow.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His sons, three sons, were fighting, but the hoe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And reap-hook he liked, or anything to do with trees.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He fell once from a poplar tall as these:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Flying Man they called him in hospital.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“If I flew now, to another world I’d fall.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He laughed and whistled to the small brown bitch",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With spots of blue that hunted in the ditch.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her foxy Welsh grandfather must have paired",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath him. He kept sheep in Wales and scared",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Strangers, I will warrant, with his pearl eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And trick of shrinking off as he were shy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then following close in silence for⁠—for what?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“No rabbit, never fear, she ever got,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet always hunts. To-day she nearly had one:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She would and she wouldn’t. ’Twas like that. The bad one!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She’s not much use, but still she’s company,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though I’m not. She goes everywhere with me.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So Alton I must reach to-night somehow:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll get no shakedown with that bedfellow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From farmers. Many a man sleeps worse to-night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than I shall.” “In the trenches.” “Yes, that’s right.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But they’ll be out of that⁠—I hope they be⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This weather, marching after the enemy.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“And so I hope. Good luck.” And there I nodded",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“good night. You keep straight on.” Stiffly he plodded;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And at his heels the crisp leaves scurried fast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the leaf-coloured robin watched. They passed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The robin till next day, the man for good,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Together in the twilight of the wood.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}