Search This Blog

Tuesday 20 January 2015

B stands for Hilaire Belloc

Hilaire Belloc has to be amongst my favourite poets I particularly liked his funny poems, here is one of them it is called.......

 Rebecca Who Slammed Doors For Fun And Perished Miserably.


A trick that everyone abhors

 In little girls is slamming doors

A wealthy banker's little daughter

 Who lived in Palace green, Bayswater

 (By name Rebecca Offendort)

 Was given to this furious sport

She would deliberately go

 And slam the doors like billy-o!

to make her Uncle Jacob start, 

She was not really bad at heart,

But only rather rude and wild; 

She was an aggravating child....

It happened that a marble bust

 of Abraham was standing just



   Above the door this little lamb

 Had carefully prepared to slam,

And down it came! It knocked her flat!

 It laid her out ! She looked like that.

Her funeral sermon (which was long

 And followed by a sacred song)

 Mentioned her virtues, it is true,

 But dwelt upon her vices too,

 And showed the dreadful end of one

 Who goes and slams the door for fun.


Hilaire  Belloc  1870 -1953  was an Anglo French writer and historian. He was also a known orator, poet, sailor, satirist, man of letters, soldier, and political activist.

 His most enduring legacy must be his verse, particularly his humorous 'Cautionary Tales For Children. A great favourite with our family which included 'Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies' and was eventually burned to death. I was tempted to include this too but time and space disallows! So more of Hilaire Belloc at a later date!

My thanks to the bonny lass Denise for creating ABCW and our brainbox admin man Roger for keeping us all in line... Best Wishes Di.... ABCW team.









31 comments:

  1. A fantastic piece Di! Great to have you on board.
    Denise ABC Team

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Denise,
    Thank you for your kind words.
    I'm truly honoured to be part of the team, it certainly has opened up new horizons, so I am grateful to you and Leslie in encouraging me to join in!
    Hope you're keeping warm up on them 'thar' moors, it's freezing here...
    I bet Bing is lying with his bum and back legs up against the Rayburn..
    Bye for now,
    love di xx
    ABCW team. (said Di with great pride) xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love those Cautionary Tales, - I see Alexander McCall Smith has a new book featuring Bertie's advise to mothers, which probably investigates the other side of the coin

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very interesting guy.
    Oh, and good posting this week!

    ROG, ABCW

    ReplyDelete
  5. A wonderful read!
    Happy ABCW!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I never slam doors, even when I am angry!
    I know many who do!
    They must read this poem with a message & a sad end though...
    Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hello Hildred,
    Thank you for your comments.
    I must confess, I tried reading one of Alexander McCall Smith's stories but just couldn't get into it, I shall have to find it and try again.
    Best Wishes.
    Di,
    ABCW team.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Roger, thanks for stopping by.
    Mr Belloc was indeed a most interesting guy. He had a wealth of knowledge about so much, but I do have a penchant for his humorous verse, which nearly always had a little message, especially for rascally children.

    best wishes,
    Di xxx

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Indrani,
    Good to hear from you again and thank you for your kind comments.

    Happy ABCW to you too!

    Best wishes,
    Di. x
    ABCW team.

    ReplyDelete
  10. hello Anita,
    Good to hear from you and thanks for your comments.
    It is most rude to slam doors but I'm not sure it warrants a naughty little girl being flattened for doing so!
    But then, children do seem to relish gory bits in literature!
    Best wishes,
    Di x
    ABCW team.

    ReplyDelete
  11. A great lesson for kids..Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Great to know a little bit about this amazing man.

    Catching up with BLUE

    Have a great Wednesday
    Rose

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks for sharing...will have to look into those Cautionary Tales♪ http://lauriekazmierczak.com/bank-shot/

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi Meenal,
    Good to hear from you again, I appreciate your comments,

    Best wishes,
    Di.
    ABCW team.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi Di! I've always liked these funny poems, which we also had. I remember the man who cut off the thumbs of the little boy who couldn't stop sucking his thumbs. The illustrations were sometimes pretty scary.
    Thanks for your visit and comment. Only. our country is not a very vast one, on the contrary it is like Belgium and Swiserland, one of the smallest countries of Europe. It is half the size of Tasmania, which is the smallest state in Australia.
    Have a great weekend dear Di!
    Wil,ABCW Team.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hi Wils:
    The story about the boy who sucked his thumbs,
    I think, is from 'The Struwwelpeter Stories' by Hoffman?
    I remember getting the book out of our local library.
    My Mother was horrified by the gruesome descriptions in it took the book right back to the library and played 'merry hell' with the librarian. The books were subsequently withdrawn from the shelves.
    My dear Mama was one not to be crossed !

    Di xx

    ReplyDelete
  17. Wil:
    On checking my Atlas I seem to have got my equations mixed up with regard to the size of the Netherlands, I don't know how,
    my apologies.

    best wishes,
    Di,
    ABCW team

    ReplyDelete
  18. Chuskulit:
    Thanks for your comments.
    Hilaire Belloc was indeed an amazing man, I love his writing
    and especially his comic verse.

    I liked your 'Blue' post on your ABCW post....'Beautiful'indeed!

    Best wishes,
    Di.
    ABCW team.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Lmkazmierczac:
    Thanks for your comments, its always good to hear from you,

    Best wishes,

    Di,
    ABCW team.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Delightful writer. I was not familiar with him.

    ReplyDelete
  21. It's okay, Di! It' s small country but it had a lot of potential in the past. We had interesting colonies like The Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, and Suriname and the Nederlands Antilles. Fortunately we have only the Antilles left. I am against colonialism. I am also glad that we have not too much power in politics.
    Let us all live in peace and equality.
    Have a great weekend, Di.
    Wil

    ReplyDelete
  22. Hi Marie Thanks for stopping by and your comments.
    Best wishes,
    Di,
    ABCW team.

    ReplyDelete
  23. wow, that's a harsh consequence to pay for slamming a door! I'm glad that that didn't happen to me in the days that my temper was fast and furious. whew!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Nonnie: Quite right,
    Just never allowed or even thought of!
    It seems there were some rather emotionally neglected children In Mr Belloc's day, that seemed to demand attention, by doing drastic things... just my theory anyway !
    Best wishes,
    Di.
    ABCW team.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Thanks for this, Trubes! I had a vague memory of some of Belloc's poems, but couldn't even have named the poet. We try so hard to keep from frightening our children, these days, but cautionary tales have a way of bypassing that "fear" element and go straight to the "fascination" element instead. Probably a whole investigation possible for why that is.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Hello Carol,
    So good to hear from you... I suspect I liked gruesome tales as much as our grandchildren do, but my dear Mama was not in agreement with the local librarian's choice !
    Hope you, Bill and Black Jack are keeping well and warm..
    It's very cold here -5 last night,
    Best wishes,
    Di.
    ABCW team.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I used to slam doors in a temper as a child but thank goodness no busts to flatten me.
    I enjoyed this.

    Diana

    ReplyDelete
  28. thanks for this amazing share!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Hi Diana,
    thanks for dropping by and your kind comments,

    Best wishes,

    Di.
    ABCW team.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Dory lyn,
    Glad you liked it,
    and took the time to stop by,
    Thank you.

    Best wishes,
    Di.
    ABCW team.

    ReplyDelete
  31. ganga cassette is very nice it has a good content and religious content. It was pleasure to read it Ganga Bhakti Sangeet

    ReplyDelete

I usually like to reply to your comments but for some reason when i do post a reply it just diappears, any advice would be most welcome,Thanks Di x

Random Z's