The Crust of Bread

THE CRUST OF BREAD

I must not throw upon the floor

The crust I cannot eat;

For many little hungry ones

Would think it quite a treat.

My parents labor very hard

To get me wholesome food

Then I must never waste a bit

That would do others good.

For wilful waste makes woeful want,

And I may live to say,

Oh how I wish I had the bread

That once I threw away!


"Think of the starving children in Africa!" they used to tell us in the 1950s. Our piano teacher quoted this poem to us, but thankfully she wasn't serious. It sounds more 1850s.

More Victorian poetry here.