page_title: Hilaire Belloc
section_title: Poetry
hierarchical_section_title: Hilaire Belloc / Writing / Poetry
caption_attribution_description: English: Original cover of Cautionary Tales for Children by Hilaire Belloc, illustrated by Basil T. Blackwood
context_page_description: Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was a British-French writer and historian and one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. His Catholic faith had a strong impact on his works. He was President of the Oxford Union and later MP for Salford South from 1906 to 1910. He was a noted disputant, with a number of long-running feuds. Belloc became a naturalised British subject in 1902 while retaining his French citizenship.
  His writings encompassed religious poetry and comic verse for children. His widely sold Cautionary Tales for Children included "Jim, who ran away from his nurse, and was eaten by a lion" and "Matilda, who told lies and was burned to death". He also collaborated with G. K. Chesterton on a number of works.
context_section_description: His Cautionary Tales for Children; humorous poems with an implausible moral, illustrated by Basil Temple Blackwood (signing as "B.T.B.") and later by Edward Gorey, are the most widely known of his writings. Supposedly for children, they, like Lewis Carroll's works, are more to adult and satirical tastes: "Henry King, Who chewed bits of string and was early cut off in dreadful agonies". A similar poem tells the story of "Rebecca, who slammed doors for fun and perished miserably".
  The tale of "Matilda who told lies and was burned to death" was adapted into the play Matilda Liar! by Debbie Isitt. Quentin Blake, the illustrator, described Belloc as at one and the same time the overbearing adult and mischievous child. Roald Dahl was a follower. But Belloc has broader if sourer scope. For example, with Lord Lundy (who was "far too freely moved to Tears"):
  It happened to Lord Lundy then
  as happens to so many men
  about the age of 26
  they shoved him into politics ...
  leading up to
  "we had intended you to be
  the next Prime Minister but three...
  instead, Lundy is condemned to the ultimate political wilderness:
  ...The stocks were sold; the Press was squared:
  The Middle Class was quite prepared.
  But as it is! . . . My language fails!
  Go out and govern New South Wales!"
  The Aged Patriot groaned and died:
  And gracious! how Lord Lundy cried!
  Of more weight is Belloc's Sonnets and Verse, a volume that deploys the same singing and rhyming techniques of his children's verses. Belloc's poetry is often religious, often romantic; throughout The Path to Rome he writes in spontaneous song.
caption: Original cover for Cautionary Tales for Children, illustrated by Basil T. Blackwood
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