Pink Dog. This is definitely one of those poems you have to read a few times to understand. So I read it twice. I still didn't get it. So I went with the ol' "what did I notice" standby. So here is a list of things that I noticed about this poem:
1)The dog thing is used in every stanza.
2)A Carnival pops up in the last three stanzas.....?
3)The dog is naked.
4) The speaker pities but also dislikes the dog at the same time.
5)The dog's life is endanger because of its nakedness...?
Okay, I'll stop there. The real list was longer, but they revolved around these items (except the Carnival, I can't fit that in anywhere). In the end, here is my take on what the poem could mean:
The naked dog is a person who wears their heart on their sleeve. Their openness makes them an embarrassment, then a target to others. Their brazenness with their feelings and emotions makes them needy and desperate for attention.
Now, here is why I thought this was the meaning of the poem. The part at the end about Lent and Ash Wednesday was what got me on this track. The Pharisees in the Bible stood on street corners, tearing their garments and proclaiming how long they have fasted that week. The naked dog is similar to these Pharisees; "Naked and pink, without a single hair... Startled, the passerby draw back and stare." The are hairless, barren, vulnerable by their own account, begging for attention; "If they do this to anyone who begs, drugged, drunk, or sober, with or without legs, what would they do to sick, four-legged dogs?". According to the speaker, pedestrians of the poem "take and throw them in the tidal rivers", the same way God will on judgement day.
Again, this interpretation may not be correct. This is simple the conclusion drawn from "what I noticed."
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