christina rossetti's "a word for the dumb"

A Word for the Dumb
Pity the sorrows of a poor old Dog
Who wags his tail a-begging in his need:
Despise not even the sorrows of a Frog,
God's creature too, and that's enough to plead:
Spare Puss who trusts us purring on our hearth:
Spare Bunny once so frisky and so free:
Spare all the harmless tenants of the earth:
Spare, and be spared:--or who shall plead for thee?

 - Christina Rossetti, a powerful poet and a sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti