Rebecca (Who Slammed Doors And Perished Miserably)

Because of National Poetry Month, I was blogging over at Soup Blog about Big Book of Verse for Aussie Kids (edited by Jim Haynes). It has over 600 poems to share with kids, and includes many of my favourite poets, like Alfred Noyes, TS Eliot, Robert Louis Stevenson and Hilaire Belloc. Haynes has some of his own poems in there too, and they are excellent (and some are very funny).

So, I came across this poem on page 334 of Big Book of Verse, and thought I’d share it here. (Note to self: Do not slam doors. Ever.)

Rebecca (Who Slammed Doors And Perished Miserably) by Hilaire Belloc

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 door 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 deadful end of one
Who goes and slams the door for fun.

The children who were brought to hear
The awful tale from far and near
Were much impressed, and inly swore
They never more would slam the door,
— As often they had done before.

A review copy of Big  Book of Aussie Verse was sent to me by Allen & Unwin.