---
title: Times and Seasons
description: Issues of 1841 to 1842.
authors:
  - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
editors:
  - Ebenezer Robinson
  - Don Carlos Smith
  - Smith, Joseph, Jr.
  - Taylor, John
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - newspaper
  - times-and-seasons
  - nauvoo
  - nineteenth-century
periodical: Times and Seasons
volume: 3
number: 14
published: 1842-05-15
publisher: E. Robinson and D. C. Smith; later John Taylor
publisher_place: Commerce and Nauvoo, Illinois
language: en
type: article
reference: "“The Kite; Or, Pride Must Have a Fall,” *Times and Seasons* 3, no. 14 (May 15, 1842): 798."
printed_title: THE KITE; OR, PRIDE MUST HAVE A FALL.
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1842-05-15_3_14
  transcription: Text from the Centerplace.org transcription (https://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v3n14.htm), with its page breaks; this Internet Archive scan is the reference copy (its OCR was used only as a witness for OCR repair)
  identifier: per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1842-05-15_3_14
start_page: 798
end_page: 798
curator_note: A Mormon newspaper published by the church in Nauvoo; included for historical study. Inclusion does not imply endorsement.
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1842 (Nauvoo, Illinois); published before 1931, so public domain in the United States
  source: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1842-05-15_3_14
  publication_year: 1842
---

# The Kite; Or, Pride Must Have a Fall

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Once on a time a paper kite In vain it try'd to soar away;

Was mounted to a wondrous height, Unable its own weight to bear,

Where giddy with its elevation, It flutter'd downward through the air;

It thus expressed self admiration:- Unaple [Unable] its own course to guide,

"See how yon crowds of gazing people The winds soon plung'd it in the tide.

Admire my flight above the steeple; Ah! foolish kite, thou hast no wing,

How would they wonder if they knew How couldst thou fly without a string?

All that a kite like me could do! My heart reply'd 'O Lord! I see

Were I but free, I'd take a flight, How much this kite resembles me.

And pierce the clouds beyond their sight: Forgetful that by thee I stand,

But, ah! like a poor pris'ner bound, Impatient of thy ruling hand;

My string confines me near the ground: How oft I've wish'd to break the lines

I'd brave the eagle's tow'ring wing, Thy wisdom for my lost assigns!

Might I but fly without a string.' How oft indulg'd a vain desire

It tugg'd and pull'd, while thus it spoke, For something more, or something higher!

To break the string,-at last it broke, And, but for grace and love divine,

Depriv'd at once of all its stay, A fall thus dreadful had been mine.

The Times and Seasons, IS EDITED BY Joseph Smith. Printed and published about the first and fifteenth of every month, on the corner of Water and Bain Streets, Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, by JOSEPH SMITH.

TERMS.-TWO DOLLARS per annum, payable in all cases in advance. Any person procuring five new subscribers, and forwarding us Ten Dollars current money, shall receive one volume gratis. All letters must be addressed to Joseph Smith, publisher, POST PAID, or they will not receive attention.