On The Gift Of A Book To A Child
Hilaire Belloc 1870 (La Celle-Saint-Cloud) – 1953
Child! do not throw this book about!
Refrain from the unholy pleasure
Of cutting all the pictures out!
Preserve it as your chiefest treasure.
Child, have you never heard it said
That you are heir to all the ages?
Why, then, your hands were never made
To tear these beautiful thick pages!
Your little hands were made to take
The better things and leave the worse ones:
They also may be used to shake
The Massive Paws of Elder Persons.
And when your prayers complete the day,
Darling, your little tiny hands
Were also made, I think, to pray
For men that lose their fairylands.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 32 sec read
- 87 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABAB XCXC DEDE FXFC |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 582 |
Words | 107 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"On The Gift Of A Book To A Child" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/19210/on-the-gift-of-a-book-to-a-child>.
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