jonathan swift: "advice to a dog painter"

Happiest of the spaniel race,
Painter, with thy colors grace,
Draw his forehead large and high,
Draw his blue and humid eye;
Draw his neck, so smooth and round,
Little neck with ribands bound;
And the musely swelling breast
Where the Loves and Graces rest;
And the spreading, even back,
Soft, and sleek, and glossy black;
And the tail that gently twines,
Like the tendrils of the vines;
And the silky twisted hair,
Shadowing thick the velvet ear;
Velvet ears which, hanging low,
O'er the veiny temples flow.

-- Jonathan Swift (1665 - 1745), better known for writing Gulliver's Travels; poem included in The Dog's Book of Verse, J. Earl Clauson, ed. (Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1916) p. 33.