Nine times the sun his yearly course had run,
And twice nine moons with changing lustre shone,
Since Jill's first breath and love to me begun.
Fine was her mien, and most exact her form,
Black sparkling eyes her lovely face adorned;
Two stately dewlaps dangled o'er her breast
(Th' hereditary ensigns of her race);
Unspotted whiteness covered all the rest,
And when she barked, 'twas with majestic grace.
But oh! what fit expressions can I find
To show the beauties of her fairer mind!
So fond! so faithful! sensible and true,
So nobly fierce! and yet so gentle too.
One look or nod instructed her with ease,
As if her only care had been to please:
Such gratitude in all her actions shined,
Such constant love, perception so refined,
That she or was, or seemed to me, the noblest of her kind!

Thus long we lived, from youth together bred,
And at one table constantly were fed:
Till on a fatal inauspicious day,
As in the sun's bright beams she basking lay,
Her beauteous eyes she rolled about in vain,
And scarcely could endure the light for pain:
An atrophy her lovely form invades,
Her bones start through the skin! her skin's bright lustre fades!
The vital flood ebbed slowly from her heart,
And deadly pangs tormented every part.
This for the space of five long days she bore,
Without a sigh or one repining groan;
While I, the greater brute, her fate deplore,
And teach her how to moan.
At last, as I sat grieving by her side,
She fixed her fainting eyes on mine, then fetched a sigh and died.