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Animal Rights History Timeline » [1837-1901] Victorian Age » Margaret Richardson

Margaret Richardson

Cruelty to Animals

The Buds of Hope, A Collection of Miscellaneous Poems

[1839] Margaret Richardson, "Cruelty to Animals," in The Buds of Hope, A Collection of Miscellaneous Poems (London, 1839; Google Books: Online Library of Free eBooks) 198.

Behold the lamb in its happy glee,
Feeding beneath a spreading tree;
Oh! that those branches could only screen
An well from Man ! as the sun's bright beam,
It frisks and frolics at sunny noon,
Unconscious, alas ! of its coming doom;
This, this is its hour of happiness,
To-morrow, that of forgetfulness.
Behold the horse, in his might how strong,
Pawing the ground, as he speeds along;
With his lofty head, and trappings gay,
Yet his power! and strength! must pass away;
While the whip, the spur, on the goaded side,
Speaks a tale, which it cannot hide;
And thus they fall, in life's short span,
Victims to cruel-hearted man:
These are the torments their bodies feel,
They have no wounds of the mind to heal;
And what are those pains by which we are seiz'd
Compared to those of a mind diseas'd.