Children, if you dare to think <br />Of the greatness, rareness, muchness <br />Fewness of this precious only <br />Endless world in which you say <br />You live, you think of things like this: <br />Blocks of slate enclosing dappled <br />Red and green, enclosing tawny <br />Yellow nets, enclosing white <br />And black acres of dominoes, <br />Where a neat brown paper parcel <br />Tempts you to untie the string. <br />In the parcel a small island, <br />On the island a large tree, <br />On the tree a husky fruit. <br />Strip the husk and pare the rind off: <br />In the kernel you will see <br />Blocks of slate enclosed by dappled <br />Red and green, enclosed by tawny <br />Yellow nets, enclosed by white <br />And black acres of dominoes, <br />Where the same brown paper parcel - <br />Children, leave the string alone! <br />For who dares undo the parcel <br />Finds himself at once inside it, <br />On the island, in the fruit, <br />Blocks of slate about his head, <br />Finds himself enclosed by dappled <br />Green and red, enclosed by yellow <br />Tawny nets, enclosed by black <br />And white acres of dominoes, <br />With the same brown paper parcel <br />Still untied upon his knee. <br />And, if he then should dare to think <br />Of the fewness, muchness, rareness, <br />Greatness of this endless only <br />Precious world in which he says <br />he lives - he then unties the string.<br /><br />Robert Graves<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/warning-to-children/
