The Kite Runner

I just watched the 1995 Emma Thompson/Hugh Grant Sense and Sensibility (and cried my stupid eyes off); anyway, there is a scene in which Margaret Dashwood plays with a kite, which made me think about kites in the eighteenth century for a moment. I was reminded of Francisco Goya's "Le cometa" (or, "The Kite") from 1778 (seen below). And then I found this poem by John Newton from 1770 titled, "The Kite, or the Fall of Pride" (also below). Other than that, however, not much surfaced on the history of kites (in a non-aeronautical way) before the mid-1800s. I will continue this investigation until I find the great kite archive...

"Unable its own course to guide,
The winds soon plunged it in the tide.
Ah! foolish kite; thou hadst no wing;
How couldt thou fly without a string?

My heart replied, 'Oh Lord, I see,
How much this kite resembles me!'"