A Dog Has Died

1. Read the poem aloud as a whole class. Then, either as a whole class or in small groups, move through the poem stanza by stanza and jot down bullet points of how the speaker describes their dog. These can be brief, such as “a companion / who was never servile” (Lines 15-16). Afterwards, try to label these descriptors with tones. For example, what tone does the line “his bad manners and his cold nose” (Line 6) have? Then, making a kind of tonal map, track how the speaker’s descriptors and tones shift from stanza to stanza. Finally, discuss as a group why you think these tonal shifts occur and why the speaker might remember his dog as a nuisance in one stanza and as a sweet companion in another.

2. Neruda’s poem is as much about the dog as it is about the speaker. Work with your peers as a team of detectives, examining the lines of the poem closely and carefully to uncover facts revealed about the speaker through this elegy to their dog. Raise your magnifying glasses to lines like “to make a vain person like me understand” (Line 29) and explore what this off-handed aside reveals about the speaker and their personality. Once you have a collection of textual evidence and have discussed in pairs or small groups what meanings are suggested by this evidence, go on to Activity 3 (below), where you will write your own elegy, incorporating lines like these to reveal why you’ve chosen to commemorate your chosen subject or object.

3. After completing Activity 2 (above), draft your own elegy. Your elegy can take the form of a verse poem, a prose poem, or flash prose. Following Neruda’s lead, choose a subject that isn’t human. It can be an animal, a tree or plant, some aspect of nature, or even an inanimate object. So long as the subject or object has deeply touched you, an elegy can be written about it. Using your work from Activity 2 (above), try to weave into your poem (as Neruda does) clues as to why you’ve chosen to write an elegy to this particular thing. You might do this by way of asides or off-handed comments that reveal feelings and truths (as you perceive them). If you are comfortable doing so, read your poem or prose piece aloud to the class or share what you’ve written with a partner.