Our little Kinsmen－after Rain 1
In plenty may be seen,
A Pink and Pulpy multitude
The tepid Ground upon.
A needless life, it seemed to me 5
Until a little Bird
As to a Hospitality
Advanced and breakfasted.
As I of He, so God of Me 9
I pondered, may have judged,
And left the little Angle Worm
With Modesties enlarged.
In plenty may be seen,
A Pink and Pulpy multitude
The tepid Ground upon.
A needless life, it seemed to me 5
Until a little Bird
As to a Hospitality
Advanced and breakfasted.
As I of He, so God of Me 9
I pondered, may have judged,
And left the little Angle Worm
With Modesties enlarged.
(F.932/J.885)
[1] Kinsmen:: angle worms, or earthworms, look like snakes.
[3] Pink and Pulpy:: a description of earthworms.
[5] me:: a snake.
[6, 8] Bird, breakfasted:: a bird came to eat the angle worms.
[9] I of He, God of Me:: the intention of the snake to the bird was like God to the serpent in Eden.
[10] judged:: to eat the bird or the little earthworm.
[11, 12] left, enlarged:: with enlarged appetite, the snake left the earthworm and turned to the bird. Snakes do eat earthworms.
Another little fellow, of four, wading in a mud-puddle after a shower, came across an angle-worm, and thus delivered himself in audible reverie: "Worms are the snakes' babies; little mices are the rats' babies; and the stars are the moon's babies!" ─ Knickerbocker, or, New-York Monthly Magazine (1851)
