Centipede's Dilemma - The Poem

The Poem

The poem, a short rhyme illustrating a solvitur ambulando in reverse, is usually attributed to Katherine Craster (1841-74) in Pinafore Peoms, 1871. By 1881, it had begun appearing in journals such as The Spectator and The Living Age. The poem later appeared in an article by the British zoologist E. Ray Lankester in the May 23, 1889 issue of the scientific journal Nature which discussed the work of the photographer Eadweard Muybridge in capturing the motion of animals: "For my own part," wrote Lankester, "I should greatly like to apply Mr. Muybridge's cameras, or a similar set of batteries, to the investigation of a phenomenon more puzzling even than that of "the galloping horse". I allude to the problem of "the running centipede." Lankester finished the article on a fanciful note by imagining the "disastrous results in the way of perplexity" that could result from such an investigation, quoting the poem and mentioning that the author was unknown to him or to the friend who sent it to him. It has since been variously attributed to specific authors but without convincing evidence, and often appears under the title "The Centipede's Dilemma".

The version in the article is as follows:

A centipede was happy – quite!

Until a toad in fun

Said, "Pray, which leg moves after which?"

This raised her doubts to such a pitch,

She fell exhausted in the ditch

Not knowing how to run.

Modern versions of the poem often recast it in verse as a fable of a spider (or other protagonist) who found a clever way to avoid being eaten:

"How do you keep all those legs coordinated?" the spider asked.

The centipede replied, "I don't know. I'd never thought about it before."

At this point, the spider ran off, and the centipede tried to give chase, but was unable to because he couldn't make his legs walk properly, and he could never move again.

Another rhyme goes:

A Spider met a centipede while hurrying down the street

How do you move at such a speed, with all so many feet

I do not have to contemplate to keep them all in line

But I start to concentrate they're tangled all the time