The Porcupine

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Title:     The Porcupine
Author: Hilaire Belloc [More Titles by Belloc]

What! would you slap the Porcupine?
Unhappy child--desist!
Alas! that any friend of mine
Should turn Tupto-philist.[B]

To strike the meanest and the least
Of creatures is a sin,
How much more bad to beat a beast
With prickles on its skin.

 

FOOTNOTES:

[A] Sometimes called the "Lion-tailed or tufted Baboon of Ceylon."

[B] From [Greek: tupto]=I strike; [Greek: phileo]=I love; one that loves to strike. The word is not found in classical Greek, nor does it occur among the writers of the Renaissance--nor anywhere else.

[The end]
Hilaire Belloc's poem: Porcupine

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