Thoughtless Cruelty
Charles Lamb
1775 to 1834
Track 1
Reconstruct the poem by dragging each line into its correct position. Your goal is to reassemble the original poem as accurately as possible. As you move the lines, you'll see whether your arrangement is correct, helping you explore the poem's flow and meaning. You can also print out the jumbled poem to cut up and reassemble in the classroom. Either way, take your time, enjoy the process, and discover how the poet's words come together to create something truly beautiful.
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His wings one minute,
You could not do it.
But, Robert do not estimate
And Providence, whose power endu'd
A thing which no way you annoy'd —
Of thought and sense, to have destroy'd
The bird but seeks his proper food —
Should shorter make it.
There, Robert, you have kill'd that fly — ,
And in the next is vanish'd quite.
A bird devours it in his flight —
The greatest being
A life by Nature made so short,
That fly with life, when it thinks good,
Less reason is that you for sport
Can have but fibres, nerves, and flesh,
The life you've taken to supply,
Twas but a fly perhaps you'll say,
Escape our seeing.
Although their frame and structure less
Or come a cold blast in the night,
A fly a little thing you rate —
There's no breath in it.
And should you thousand ages try
That does but just learn to display
And these the smallest ones possess,
That's born in April, dies in May;
May justly take it.
But you have no excuses for't —
A creature's pain by small or great;
You surely must have been devoid
You'll one day rue it.