‘The Hedgehog’ by Edith King

As I was taking a stroll the other day, I spotted a cute little hedgehog in the grass not far from the footpath. I’m always delighted to see these wonderful, shy, super cute creatures. The few minutes I spent sitting next to it made my day.

And so the topic of this poetry post are hedgehogs! I’ve chosen a children’s poem written by Edith King in which the author describes this ‘little beast’: what it looks like, what it eats, where it lives… 

I’ve found it in Fifty New Poems for Children, a lovely anthology published in New York in 1924. The link to it is provided in the Additional Resources section below, along with the links to a few more hedgehog-themed poems (albeit for adults). 

Also, English language learners will find a simple vocabulary exercise, focusing on some of the verbs found in the poem.

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The hedgehog is a little beast
Who likes a quiet wood,
Where he can feed his family
On proper hedgehog food.

He has a funny little snout
That's rather like a pig's.
With which he smells, like us, of course.
But also runts and digs.

He wears the queerest prickle coat,
Instead of hair or fur,
And only has to curl himself
To bristle like a burr.

He does not need to battle with
Or run away from foes,
His coat does all the work for him,
It pricks them on the nose.

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VOCABULARY EXERCISE

Match the following verbs found in the poem with their definitions or synonyms:

FEED | DIG | BRISTLE | CURL | PRICK

• to break up and move soil
• to form into a curved or spiral shape
• to give food to 
• to make a very small hole in something, to pierce
• to stay upright away from the skin (of hair or fur) 

To check your answers, please click here.

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Fifty New Poems for Children (PDF file)

Hedgehog by Paul Muldoon

Hedgehog by Polly Clark

The Hedgehog by Lola Haskins

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COVER PHOTO CREDIT

Image by Alexas_Fotos via Unsplash.