Dedication on the Gift of a Book to a Child
Child! do not throw this book about!Refrain from the unholy pleasureOf cutting all the pictures out!Preserve it as your chiefest treasure.
Child, have you never heard it saidThat you are heir to all the ages?Why, then, your hands were never madeTo tear these beautiful thick pages!
Your little hands were made to takeThe better things and leave the worse ones:They also may be used to shakeThe Massive Paws of Elder Persons.
And when your prayers complete the day,Darling, your little tiny handsWere also made, I think, to prayFor men that lose their fairylands.
Words in this poem
- unholy a.
- Not holy; unhallowed; not consecrated; hence, profane; wicked; impious.
- chiefest a.
- First or foremost; chief; principal. [Superl. of Chief.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dedication on the Gift of a Book to a Child is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets and Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #60663; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Hilaire Belloc, Dedication on the Gift of a Book to a Child, in Sonnets and Verse (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/belloc-sonnets-verse/dedication-on-the-gift-of-a-book-to-a-child.html, id L21663.
Form and metre
Dedication on the Gift of a Book to a Child is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB aboutA · pleasureB · outA · treasureB
- 2 -A-A said · agesA · made · pagesA
- 3 ABAB takeA · onesB · shakeA · personsB
- 4 ABAB dayA · handsB · prayA · fairylandsB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Child! do not throw this book about! | 8 | ········ |
| Refrain from the unholy pleasure | 9 | ˘/··˘/˘/˘ |
| Of cutting all the pictures out! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Preserve it as your chiefest treasure. | 9 | ˘/···/˘/˘ |
| Child, have you never heard it said | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That you are heir to all the ages? | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Why, then, your hands were never made | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To tear these beautiful thick pages! | 9 | ···/˘˘·/˘ |
| Your little hands were made to take | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The better things and leave the worse ones: | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| They also may be used to shake | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The Massive Paws of Elder Persons. | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| And when your prayers complete the day, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Darling, your little tiny hands | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
| Were also made, I think, to pray | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| For men that lose their fairylands. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.