Child! do not Throw this Book about
Child! do not Throw this Book about
Original Text
The Bad Child's Book of Beasts (London: Duckworth, [1896]): 2. Internet Archive AVQ-4330
2 Refrain from the unholy pleasure
3Of cutting all the pictures out!
4 Preserve it as your chiefest treasure.
5Child, have you never heard it said
6 That you are heir to all the ages?
7Why, then, your hands were never made
8 To tear these beautiful thick pages!
9Your little hands were made to take
10 The better things and leave the worse ones.
11They also may be used to shake
12 The Massive Paws of Elder Persons.
13And when your prayers complete the day,
14 Darling, your little tiny hands
15Were also made, I think, to pray
16 For men that lose their fairylands.
Notes
1] Untitled poem in a book dedicated to Master Evelyn Bell of Oxford. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1896
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011
Rhyme
Form