http://www.ivu.org/people/quotes/poems19.html
The Rabbit W.H.DAVIES (1871-1940)
Not even when the early birds
Danced on my roof with showery feet
Such music as will come from rain -
Not even then could I forget
The rabbit in his hours of pain;
Where, lying in an iron trap,
He cries all through the deafened night -
Until his smiling murderer comes,
To kill him in the morning light.
Obligation Edgar A. GUEST (1881-1959)
They cannot ask for kindness
Or for mercy plead,
Yet cruel is our blindness
Which does not see their need,
World-over, town or city,
God trusts us with this task:
To give our love and pity
To those who cannot ask.
Stupidity Street Ralph HODGSON (1871-1962)
I saw with open eyes
Singing birds sweet
Sold in the shops
For the people to eat,
Sold in the shops of
Stupidity Street.
I saw in vision
The worm in the wheat,
And in the shops nothing
For people to eat;
Nothing for sale in
Stupidity Street.
The Bells of Heaven Ralph HODGSON (1871-1962)
'Twould ring the bells of Heaven
The wildest peals for years,
If Parson lost his senses
And people came to theirs,
And he and they together
Knelt down with angry prayers
For tamed and shabby tigers,
And dancing dogs and bears,
And wretched, blind pit-ponies
And little hunted hares.
Top How the hell can we stop animal cruelty in this country...what will it take? No one in authority gives a damn. Action, not apathy
Little Things James STEPHENS (1882-1950)
- Little things that run and quail, And die, in silence and despair!
- Little things, that fight and fail, And fall, on sea, and earth, and air!
- All trapped and frightened little things, The mouse, the coney, hear our prayer!
- And we forgive those done to us - The lamb, the linnet, and the hare -
- Forgive us all our trespasses, Little creatures, everywhere!
The Snare James STEPHENS (1882-1950)
I hear a sudden cry of pain!
There is a rabbit in a snare:
Now I hear the cry again,
But I cannot tell from where.
But I cannot tell from where
He is calling out for aid!
Crying on the frightened air,
Making everything afraid!
Making everything afraid!
Wrinkling up his little face!
And he cries again for aid;
- and I cannot find the place!
And I cannot find the place
Where his paw is in the snare!
Little One! Oh, Little One!
I am searching everywhere!
The Cage James STEPHENS (1882-1950)
It tried to get from out the cage;
Here and there it ran, and tried
At the edges and the side,
In a busy, timid rage.
Trying yet to find the key
Into freedom, trying yet,
In a timid rage to get
To its old tranquillity.
It did not know, it did not see,
It did not turn an eye, or care
That a man was watching there
While it raged so timidly.
It ran without a sound, it tried,
In a busy, timid rage,
To escape from out the cage
By the edges and the side.
So Many Gods Ella Wheeler WILCOX (1850-1919)
So many Gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind
Is all the sad world needs.
Voice of the Voiceless Ella Wheeler WILCOX (1850-1919)
Oh, never a brute in the forest
and never a snake in the fen
Or ravening bird, starvation stirred,
has hunted its prey like men.
For hunger and fear and passion
alone drive beasts to slay,
But wonderful man, the crown of the plan,
tortures and kills for play.
Kinship Ella Wheeler WILCOX (1850-1919)
I am the voice of the voiceless;
Through me the dumb shall speak,
Till the deaf world's ear be made to hear
The wrongs of the wordless weak.
From street, from cage and from kennel,
From stable and zoo, the wail
Of my tortured kin proclaims the sin
Of the mighty against the frail.
Oh shame on the mothers of mortals,
Who have not stooped to teach
Of the sorrow that lies in dear, dumb eyes,
The sorrow that has no speech.
The same force framed the sparrow
That fashioned man the king;
The God of the whole gave a spark of soul
To furred and feathered thing.
And I am my brother's keeper,
And I will fight his fight,
And speak the word for beast and bird,
Till the world shall set things right.
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