What the Imps Did (1869)
AUTHOR: Alcott, Louisa May
American Historical Periodicals from the American Antiquarian Society.
---. Under the Lilacs
---. “The Whale's Story”
Alcott, William. Gift Book for Young Ladies
---. “Man His Brother's Keeper”
Alcott, William. “Shooting Birds”
Martha Jane Anderson, Mount Lebanon Cedar Boughs
Baum, L. Frank. The “Oz” series
Bergh, Henry. “An Address”
---. “An Anthropozoonet”
---. “Fashionable Slaughter”
---. “Letter from Mr. Bergh”
---. “New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals”
---. “Pigeon Shooting”
---. “Pigeon-Shooting”
Child, Lydia Maria. “Intelligence of Animals”
---. Isaac T. Hopper
---. “Kindness to Animals”
---. Letters from New York
---. Letters from New-York: Second Series
---. Letters of Lydia Maria Child
---. The Mother's Book
---. “Willie Wild Thing”
Clubb, Henry Stephen. “God's Covenant with Beasts”
Fowler, Lydia Folger. Familiar Lessons on Physiology and Phrenology
Fowler, Orson Squire. Education and Self-improvement
---. Self Culture and Perfection of Character
Freshel, M. R. L. The Golden Rule Cook Book
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Automobile as a Reformer”
---. “The Beast Prison”
---. “Pets and Children”
Howells, William Dean. “Qualities without Defects”
---. “Turkeys Turning the Tables”
---. Tuscan Cities
Lovell, Mary Frances. “Address on Humane Education”
---. “Cruel Teneriffe”
---. “The Fundamental Need of Humane Education”
---. “Ostrich Plumes”
---. “A Plea for Mercy”
---. “The Wearing of Egret Plumes”
---. “Woman's Responsibility Toward the Animal Creation”
Moore, J. Howard. Better-World Philosophy
---. “Discovering Darwin”
---. Ethics and Education
---. “Evolution and Humanitarianism”
---. High School Ethics
---. “How Vegetarians Observe the Golden Rule”
---. The Law of Biogenesis
---. “The Martyrs of Civilization”
---. “The Unconscious Holocaust”
---. The Universal Kinship
Neff, Flora Trueblood Bennett. Along Life's Pathways
---. “Congratulations Mrs. Hayward”
Pillsbury, Parker. “A Sun-Burst Letter”
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Palmetto-Leaves
---. “Rights of Dumb Animals”
Thoreau, Henry David. Cape Cod
Trine, Ralph Waldo. Every Living Creature
Twain, Mark. Mark Twain's Book of Animals
---. Mark Twain's Notebook
Ward, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. “The Ermine”
The poem promotes charity, kindness, and tenderness towards fellow beings such as non-human animals. Composed in ballad form, “What the Imps Did” opens with “four little birds, / Sitting alone in the nest,” complaining that they have not been fed and that they miss their parents. Some “droll little imps” playing nearby immediately understand why this is the case, exclaiming: “'The boy who did this sinful thing / Better not come in our way'.” The imps imply that the birds' parents have been killed by a boy, bird shooting being a common pastime for boys as, for example, described and denounced in William Alcott's short essay on “Shooting Birds.”
After expressing their anger about such a boy, the imps decide to “adopt” the birds, thus counteracting the boy's cruelty and displaying (with the poem thus promoting) the caring attitude that he lacks. They make good on their promise, feeding the birds and keeping them warm until they are strong enough to leave the nest. The birds declare their loyalty and friendship and promise to spread the word about the imps' “charity.” The imps rejoice in their good deed, as does the human narrator, who praises their “tender hearts.” The little imps are modelled as stalwarts of Christian morality, inviting readers (particularly the “sinful” boys among them) to emulate their values and conduct.