The Happy Prince
June 2011
One night a little swallow, who was on his way to Egypt to escape the harsh winter of Europe, flew over the city where a beautiful statue stood.
It was covered by thin leaves of fine gold; for eyes he had two sapphires and a large red ruby glowed on his sword. It was the statue of the Happy Prince, so called because when he was alive he had lived in a palace where sorrow was not allowed. However, the statue of the Happy Prince could now see the whole city and all its misery and privation. And it pained him so much that he shed tears every night. The swallow, who had decided to spend the night nestling at his feet, woke up when the huge tears began splashing at his feathers. The Prince was anguished at the sight of a poor seamstress who was embroidering passion flowers on a satin gown, and whose little boy lay ill in one corner of the room. They had no food to eat. The Happy Prince begged the swallow to stay with him one more night and to give the seamstress the large red ruby. The swallow did so, and the next evening happily trilled his goodbye to the Prince, for he was longing to be on his way.
But the Prince once again gave him the commission of giving one of his sapphire eyes to a poet starving in a garret. The night after that he commissioned him to give the second sapphire eye to a poor little match girl whose matches had all fallen in the snow. Now the Prince was quite blind and the loving swallow decided he would not leave him but would stay with him. He became his eyes and told him of all the poverty he saw on the streets and bit by bit, the prince made the swallow take the fine gold leaves with which he was covered and give it to the poor. Days passed thus and soon it became so cold that the swallow knew he would die. Giving the Prince a kiss on the lips as a symbol of their love, the swallow fell dead at the Prince's feet. At that moment a crack sounded inside the statue as the Prince's heart broke.
Early the next morning, the Mayor saw the statue bereft of its finery and decided to pull it down. The statue was melted in a furnace and the lead reused. The broken lead heart, however, did not melt, and so it was thrown away on a dust-heap alongside the dead swallow. That night, an angel was charged by God to find 'the two most precious things in the city.' He returned with the dead bird and the Prince's broken heart.
Oscar Wilde
Takeaway: This beautiful story inspires us to give even at the cost of our lives. For it is only when we give that we truly live. Please read the original, children, for Oscar Wilde is a great writer and to read him is a treat.
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