Analysis Of Dog's Death By John Updike

“Dog’s Death” by John Updike is a narrative poem written in open form about a family pet that dies unexpectedly and the family’s reaction to the death. Updike does use some rhyme in his poem but in whole, the poem lacks a fixed structure. As I begin reading the poem I am immediately placed in a solemn state as a dog lover. The title of the poem immediately sets the tone of the poem and Updike does not stray from this morbid foreshadowing. The narrator of the poem is the family’s father and he tells the story of the loss of a pet, a puppy, in a narrative with use of flashforwarding. This is shown from beginning the poem with the first four lines using descriptions of the pet as a puppy and an assumption that she was kicked or hit by a car, to