George Who Played With a Dangerour Toy and Suffered a Catastrophe of Considerable Dimensions

Poetry Monday


George Who Played With a Dangerour Toy, and Suffered a Catastrophe of Considerable Dimensions
When George's Grandmamma was told
That George had been as good as Gold,
She Promised in the Afternoon
To buy him an immense BALLOON.
And so she did; but when it came,
It got into the candle flame,
And being of a dangerous sort
Exploded with a Loud Report!
The Lights went out! The Windows broke!
The Room filled with reeking smoke!
And in the darkness shrieks and yells
Were mingled with Electric Bells,
And falling masonry and groans,
And crunching, as of broken bones,
And dreadful shrieks, when, worst of all,
The House itself began to fall!
It tottered, shuddering to and fro,
Then crashed into the street below-
Which happened to be Savile Row.


When Help Arrived, among the Dead
Where cousin Mary, Little Fred,
The Foormen (both of them), the Groom,
The man that cleaned the Billiard-Room,
The Chaplain, and the Still-Room Maid.
And I am dreadfully afraid
That Monsieur Champignon, the Chef,
Will now be permently deaf-
And both his Aides are much the same;
While George, who was in part to blame,
Received, you will regret to hear,
A nasty lump behind his ear.

The moral is that little Boys
Should not be given dangerous Toys.

- Hilaire Belloc
from his book 'Cautionary Tales for Children