my sunday poem … # 6

my sunday poem … # 6

When I was a student in the early 1970s, the class I was in was asked to write our own versions of a poem called The Spider and the Fly by poet Mary Howitt, first published in 1829. It begins …

Will you walk into my parlour?” said the Spider to the Fly.

You can read her lovely poem here

Anyway, suitably inspired I wrote the following effort.

O creepy crawly spider
Spinning silken sticky web
Don’t you think you ought to try
To spin magic instead.
For this it is a wondrous thing
And you can bide your time
Oh please release me from dying
Before you change your mind.

Thus said fly to the spider
One warm and golden day
Just as the sun was setting
Over the woodland glade.
And all the other insects
They gathered around to see
Whether the spider would be kind
And realise his plea.

The spinner of the cobweb
He eyed his trembling prey
And in and out the spindle thread
Began to weave his way.
You’re but a common housefly
You are no more no less
Your buzzy buzz annoys me
To kill you would be best.

O creepy crawly spider
Forget the things you’ve said
Cast all thoughts of harming me
Completely from your head.
One looked upon the other
In such a kindly way
But nature loves a winner
So nature won the day.

 ……………………………

Advertisement