Defending the Dumb

I read a poem once which addressed that great mystery of why some living creatures are given a voice and some are not. Added to that, we were discussing insects in class the other day and the majority of students attested that bugs and spiders gave them "the creeps," and that they killed them instantly. But one girl insisted that no insects should be killed, and that she had a "bug vacuum" which gently pulled in the creatures so that she could safely deposit them outside.

I had never heard of a bug vacuum, but it did make me wonder again about that great cosmic question: in killing a bug, am I taking a life I was not supposed to take? If one of the commandments forbids killing, does that include bugs?

In honor of this theme, I present a poem by Christina Rossetti, who was born on this day in 1830. Rossetti, I fear, would be an advocate for the bugs.


A Word For The Dumb

"Pity the sorrows of a poor old Dog
Who wags his tail a-begging in his need:
Despise not even the sorrows of a Frog,
God’s creature too, and that’s enough to plead:
Spare Puss who trusts us purring on our hearth:
Spare Bunny once so frisky and so free:
Spare all the harmless tenants of the earth:
Spare, and be spared:—or who shall plead for thee?"

--Christina Rossetti