Epitaph to a Dog Epitaph to a Dog "Epitaph to a Dog" (also sometimes referred to as "Inscription on the Monument to a Newfoundland Dog") is a poem by the British poet Lord Byron. It was written in 1808 in honour of his Newfoundland dog, Boatswain, who had just died of rabies. When Boatswain contracted the disease, Byron reportedly nursed him without any fear of becoming bitten and infected. The poem is inscribed on Boatswain's tomb, which is larger than Byron's, at Newstead Abbey, Byron's estate. The sections above the poem form a memorial eulogy to Boatswain, and introduce the poem. They are often
Newfoundland English literally "... is at me". Newfoundland English often follows the Northern Subject Rule, a legacy of settlement from South East Ireland which in turn was influenced by Anglo-Irish settlement from Northern England into Ireland. For example, the verb "to like" is conjugated "I likes", "you likes", "he/she/it likes", "we likes", "you likes", and "they likes". In some communities on the island's northeast coast, "you" (singular), "you" (plural), and "they" correspond to "ye", "dee", and "dey", respectively. The word "bes" is sometimes used in place of the normally conjugated forms of "to be" to describe continual actions or states of being,