04-21-21 Smug and Pompous

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This writer is better known for loftier, more enduring prose than these few lines of doggerel that describe a small dog who was late to the hunt but claimed that he deserved the prize bearskin. Who was the author, and who did he compare to the smug and pompous dog?

credit: @LoyaltyOfDogs
 
Abraham Lincoln compared the little dog to
"...pompous, two-legged dogs there be
Conceited quite as [him]."
He had previously compared the two-leggers taking part in the hunt to "lawyers in a murder case", so he may have been compering the late-coming contestant for the bear skin to them as well. Perhaps casting soome indirect shade on his own profession?
I don't know the date of the poem, but the Atlantic article that I found it in seems to say it was written between 1846 and 1867, and my guess is it's a lot closer to the former.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazin...-original-ballad-never-before-printed/305430/
 
HELP: I am a lousy typist, and I edit my posts/emails/whatever so much that I frequently end up with missing words, extra letters, etc. all over the place, 50% of which I never seem to see until AFTER I hit "send".
Usually, I can edit my own posts on this forum, but the trivia'thread's locking 'til mod approval has prevented that.
Lest someone should think I'm either a second-grader or a cat on the keyboard, here is what the post that I just submitted SHOULD have read:


Abraham Lincoln compared the little dog to
"...pompous, two-legged dogs...Conceited quite as [him]", probably meaning the hunters.
Having previously compared those same successful hunters to "lawyers in a murder case" as they argued over the skin, he may also have been comparing the late-coming dog to them as well, perhaps casting some indirect shade on his own profession.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazin...-original-ballad-never-before-printed/305430/
 
Uh - what few lines of doggerel? :unsure:

Edit - Now that I see the official answer, I'll agree that it was doggerel, but I would consider 88 lines to be quite a bit more than a "few." I count this piece as containing 529 words, which makes it almost twice as long as the Gettysburg Address.
 
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This writer is better known for loftier, more enduring prose than these few lines of doggerel that describe a small dog who was late to the hunt but claimed that he deserved the prize bearskin. Who was the author, and who did he compare to the smug and pompous dog?

credit: @LoyaltyOfDogs
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) wrote about the "late to the hunt" dog in his unpublished third "canto" or poem, "The Bear Hunt", which he sent his Springfield, Illinois friend Andrew Johnston in a letter dated February 25, 1847.
Sources differ concerning the meaning of the term: some claim it continues his empathy toward another boyhood friend, Matthew Gentry, who went insane and was the central character in Lincoln's second canto, "The Maniac"; others that it refers to the winning lawyer in a murder case, harassed by other lawyers seeking credit for his success- "pompous, two-legged dogs".
Here is "The Bear Hunt". You decide....


A wild bear chase didst never see?
Then hast thou lived in vain—
Thy richest bump of glorious glee
Lies desert in thy brain.
When first my father settled here,
’T was then the frontier line;
The panther’s scream filled night with fear
And bears preyed on the swine.
But woe for bruin’s short-lived fun
When rose the squealing cry;
Now man and horse, with dog and gun
For vengeance at him fly.
A sound of danger strikes his ear;
He gives the breeze a snuff;
Away he bounds, with little fear,
And seeks the tangled rough.
On press his foes, and reach the ground
Where’s left his half-munched meal;
The dogs, in circles, scent around
And find his fresh made trail.
With instant cry, away they dash,
And me at fast pursue;
O’er logs they leap, through water splash
And shout the brisk halloo.
Now to elude the eager pack
Bear shuns the open ground,
Through matted vines he shapes his track,
And runs it, round and round.
The tall, fleet cur, with deep-mouthed voice
Now speeds him, as the wind;
While half-grown pup, and short-legged fice*
Are yelping far behind.
And fresh recruits are dropping in
To join the merry corps;
With yelp and yell, a mingled din—
The woods are in a roar—
And round, and round the chase now goes,
The world ’s alive with fun;
Nick Carter’s horse his rider throws,
And Mose Hill drops his gun.
Now, sorely pressed, bear glances back,
And lolls his tired tongue,
When as, to force him from his track
An ambush on him sprung.
Across the glade he sweeps for flight,
And fully is in view—
The dogs, new fired by the sight
Their cry and speed renew.
The foremost ones now reach his rear;
He turns, they dash away,
And circling now the wrathful bear
They have him full at bay.
At top of speed the horsemen come,
All screaming in a row—
‘Whoop!’ ‘Take him, Tiger!’ ‘Seize him, Drum!’
BangBang! the rifles go!
And furious now, the dogs he tears,
And crushes in his ire—
Wheels right and left, and upward rears,
With eyes of burning fire.
But leaden death is at his heart—
Vain all the strength he plies,
And, spouting blood from every part,
He reels, and sinks, and dies!
And now a dinsome clamor rose,—
‘But who should have his skin?’
Who first draws blood, each hunter knows
This prize must always win.
But, who did this, and how to trace
What ’s true from what ’s a lie,—
Like lawyers in a murder case
They stoutly argufy.
Aforesaid fice, of blustering mood,
Behind, and quite forgot,
Just now emerging from the wood
Arrives upon the spot.
With grinning teeth, and up-turned hair
Brim full of spunk and wrath,
He growls, and seizes on dead bear
And shakes for life and death—
And swells, as if his skin would tear,
And growls, and shakes again,
And swears, as plain as dog can swear
That he has won the skin!
Conceited whelp! we laugh at thee,
Nor mind that not a few
Of pompous, two-legged dogs there be
Conceited quite as you.

Source: Abraham Lincoln, "The Bear Hunt: An Original Ballad Never Before Printed", The Atlantic, February 1925.
Source: David S. Reynolds, Abe: Abraham Lincoln in his Times, (New York: Penguin Press, 2020), pp. 245-246.
Source:
 
Answer: Abraham Lincoln wrote the poem “The Bear Hunt,” in which he compared the bear hunters to the conceited fice dog.
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazin...-original-ballad-never-before-printed/305430/

Edit - It is apparent from the variety of answers given by the players that the question was not worded in such a way as to make it clear that the answer to the second part of the question should be "bear hunters." For that reason, I am throwing out the second part of the question. Everybody who gave Lincoln's name as the answer to the first part of the question will receive 10 points credit for a correct response.

hoosier
 
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