The speaker in Weighing the Dog compares the action of weighing his dog to a lost relationship from the past. However, through comparing which individual is being held, the speaker analogously aligns the dog on the scale with himself in the relationship. The poem allows the speaker to reflect upon past relationships and sympathize with others that have had to weigh the value of the situation. The metric inversions and flagrant disunity within the phrases demonstrates the speaker's regretful and reflective tone, and how he is unable to create relationships that parallel his intentions and his actions.
The choppy sentences and the lack of consistency throughout the poem strengthens the regretful tone of the speaker because he recognizes the disunity of his relationships. The second stanza demonstrates the discord of his relations by utilizing the same word with incongruous meanings: "but this was the way to weigh a dog and easier." Although 'way' and 'weigh' sound the same to the human ear, when written, they do not carry the same meaning. The discord between the words parallels the discord in the relationships of the speaker because although they appear uniform on the outside, they elicit distinct meanings for the individuals involved.
When reading the poem, not all elements of the poem flow smoothly, reflecting the incongruity in the speaker's relationships. The speaker's description of calculating the weight of his dog is choppy and not well structured. The speaker relates, "from our total to find out the remainder that is his". The awkward phrasing of this phrase parallels the awkward tension and inconsistencies that are present in all of the speaker's relationships. The missing punctuation and fluidity between the words in the phrase demonstrates the missing elements of his relationships. The speaker is regretfully reflecting on his past relationships and lamenting how he "never figured out what you amounted to".
The contrast between what the speaker is able to appreciate while he is in a relationship versus when it has ended is reflected in the poem's regretful and melancholy tone through its incongruity and auditory disunity. The awkward and bewildering situation of weighing his dog parallels the "all those awkward and bewildering months" he was in a past relationship. The parallel of the analogous relationships contrasted to the incongruity between the elements of the poem: definitions, sentence structure, and metric meter, demonstrates the confusion of the speaker and his attempt to reflect on his past relationships. The disunity of the poem highlights the regretful and reflective tone of the poem as the speaker contemplates the faults in his relationships.
