The Wolf and the Lamb
A Wolf finds a series of reasons for making a meal of a little Lamb, but it turns out he did not really need them.
A Wolf finds a series of reasons for making a meal of a little Lamb, but it turns out he did not really need them.
Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, appealed to this Fable as an illustration of the way that stronger nations bully weaker ones. Like the Wolf, they justify gobbling up their neighbours by saying they are simply defending themselves and their interests, but it is superior military and economic power, not right and wrong, that decides the outcome.
A HUNGRY Wolf one day saw a Lamb drinking at a stream, and wished to frame some plausible excuse for making him his prey. “What do mean” fiercely said he to the Lamb “by muddling the water I am going to drink?”
“Pray forgive me,” meekly answered the Lamb; “I should be sorry in any way to displease you, but as the stream runs from you towards me, you will see that such cannot be the case.”
“That’s all very well,” said the Wolf; “but you know you spoke ill of me behind my back a year ago.”
“Nay, believe me,” replied the Lamb, “I was not then born.”
“It must have been your brother then,” growled the Wolf.
“It cannot have been, for I never had any,” answered the Lamb.
“I know it was one of your lot,” rejoined the Wolf, “so make no more such idle excuses.”
He then seized the poor Lamb, carried him off to the woods, and ate him.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
A Wolf drank from a stream. He said a Lamb muddied his water. The Lamb said the Wolf was upstream.
See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.
IAccuse. IIBecause. IIIDeny.