Wherefore should man or thoughtless boy Thy quiet harmless life destroy, Innoxious urchin? -- for thy food Is but the beetle and the fly, And all thy harmless luxury The swarming insects of the wood. Should man to whom his God has given Reason, the brightest ray of heaven, Delight to hurt, in senseless mirth, Inferior animals? -- and dare To use his power in waging war Against his brethren of the earth? Poor creature! to the woods resort, Lest lingering here, inhuman sport Should render vain thy thorny case; And whelming water, deep and cold, Make thee thy spiny ball unfold, And shew thy simple negro face! Fly from the cruel; know than they Less fierce are ravenous beasts of prey, And should perchance these last come near thee[,] And fox or martin cat assail, Thou, safe within thy coat of mail, May cry -- Ah! noli me tangere. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HIGH PLAINS RAG by JAMES GALVIN SPRING STORM by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS THE WHITE COMRADE (AFTER W.H. LEATHAM'S 'THE COMRADE IN WHIRE') by ROBERT HAVEN SCHAUFFLER BEING RETIRED, COMPLAINS AGAINST THE COURT by PHILIP AYRES FESTUBERT: THE OLD GERMAN LINE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN DIS ALITER VISUM; OR, LE BYRON DE NOS JOURS by ROBERT BROWNING |