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The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set --
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink --
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.
Roald Dahl
| Submitted Date |
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Friday, January 03, 2003 |
| Submitted Date |
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Tuesday, January 03, 2012 |
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Read poems about / on: television, children, purple, house, child, joy, fear, lost
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Comments about this poem (Television
by
Roald Dahl
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Renu Kakkar (1/25/2012 12:55:00 AM)
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a real good poem...has relevance today too as so much junk is passed on as information. kids are most affected and dont study or play outside making their own games..it is killing their imagination...they don't read books even....now computer games and those on mobiles are a craze too eating into study time and play time..those ps3s are taking the time of outdoor games.
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Daniel Martin (1/17/2012 8:03:00 AM)
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Fantsatic, whitty, clever, and as relevnt today as when it was written (probably even more relevant today!) . Great poem!
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ziggy ztardust (1/16/2012 4:05:00 PM)
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this is my favorite poem of roahl dahls he has used so much good words how dose he do it i wanna be like him
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Julie Vognar (1/11/2012 9:03:00 PM)
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I agree with him, but I like his prose better!
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Benjamin Paa Willie (12/25/2011 7:22:00 AM)
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Perhaps if I were stuck to the TV, I may not have read this. So please take the foul box away. All at once, else we should crowd at anywhere we find one
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isabella Francis (10/29/2011 1:16:00 PM)
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An idiot box can never substitute reading. Specially with all it's nonsense..
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Abhishek Tiwari (10/13/2011 11:16:00 PM)
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The TV makes me smile for sure..
But it doesn't make me happy..
I may never smile while reading..
But it makes happy for sure..
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Winston Harding (9/15/2011 10:15:00 PM)
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The youths of today should read and digest. On the mark! Great writing.
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Hannah Wolton-Carr (6/8/2011 7:38:00 PM)
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So true. Books were my childhood, still are, the television barely comes into it. Imagination was there to make your own world up, we can't all be so lazy to have the television make the imagary for us. Roald is a true insperation, RIP.
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