Dog Around the Block

Dog around the block, sniff,
Hydrant sniffing, corner, grating,
Sniffing, always, starting forward,
Backward, dragging, sniffing backward,
Leash at taut, leash at dangle,
Leash in people’s feet entangle—
Sniffing dog, apprised of smellings,
Love of life, and fronts of dwellings,
Meeting enemies,
Loving old acquaintance, sniff,
Sniffing hydrant for reminders,
Leg against the wall, raise,
Leaving grating, corner greeting,
Chance for meeting, sniff, meeting,
Meeting, telling, news of smelling,
Nose to tail, tail to nose,
Rigid, careful, pose,
Liking, partly liking, hating,
Then another hydrant, grating,
Leash at taut, leash at dangle,
Tangle, sniff, untangle,
Dog around the block, sniff.

Credit

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on August 16, 2026, by the Academy of American Poets.

About this Poem

“Dog Around the Block” was first published in The New Yorker (December 6, 1930). About E. B. White’s particular affinity for writing about dogs, Bill Ott, the editor and publisher of Booklist for over thirty years, writes in his essay, “The Grief and Joy of Man’s Best Friend,” published by American Libraries (August 12, 2013), “Dogs were one of White’s favorite subjects. He shared his life with multiple breeds over the years (but always with a special fondness for dachshunds), and he wrote about dogs with great respect (and a firm conviction that they look upon their human companions with a mixture of tolerance and weary disdain). There is plenty of grief in his writing about dogs, too, but there is also an abundance of joy. The two, we learn, are sometimes inseparable.”