“Hurt No Living Thing”
Hurt no living thing:
Ladybird, nor butterfly,
Nor moth with dusty wing,
Nor cricket chirping cheerily,
Nor grasshopper so light of leap,
Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat,
Nor harmless worms that creep.
–Christina Rossetti
Poetry Friday is being held at Read Write Believe this week.
Published by Stacey Shubitz
I am a literacy consultant who focuses on writing workshop. I've been working with K-6 teachers and students since 2009. Prior to that, I was a fourth and fifth-grade teacher in New York City and Rhode Island.
I'm the author of Craft Moves (Stenhouse Publishers, 2016) and the co-author of Jump Into Writing (Zaner-Bloser, 2021), Welcome to Writing Workshop (Stenhouse Publishers, 2019), and Day By Day (Stenhouse, 2010).
I live in Central Pennsylvania with my husband and children. In my free time, I enjoy swimming, doing Pilates, cooking, baking, making ice cream, and reading novels.
View all posts by Stacey Shubitz
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 
I used to have a butterfly poster with this poem on it. I wonder where it’s got to…
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Nor rouse the cat from his daily nap
And cause him such commotion.
hey, thanks for the inspiration… 🙂
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My eldest was once tenderly watching a fly walk along the floor of the front porch. My middle child walked up, stepped on it, and looked happily at her sister, thinking she had done her a favor. When my eldest then cried, Middle Child said, “I’m sowwy I killed your fwiend.”
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I do love Christina Rossetti’s love of the natural world, of rocks and the inanimate, of birds and mammals. I could see these words stenciled around the ceiling of a classroom where children first learn science. Beautiful.
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My daughter, at three-years-old, once climbed into a hotel fountain to rescue a moth.
Thanks for being part of the Poetry circle today!
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