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<p>This is one of my favorite childhood poem that I really enjoyed be an author, poet and well renown personality Roald Dahl. Enjoy....</p>
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<blockquote>Television - Poem by Roald Dahl</blockquote>
<blockquote> The most important thing we've learned,<br>
So far as children are concerned,<br>
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let<br>
Them near your television set --<br>
Or better still, just don't install<br>
The idiotic thing at all.<br>
In almost every house we've been,<br>
We've watched them gaping at the screen.<br>
They loll and slop and lounge about,<br>
And stare until their eyes pop out.<br>
(Last week in someone's place we saw<br>
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)<br>
They sit and stare and stare and sit<br>
Until they're hypnotised by it,<br>
Until they're absolutely drunk<br>
With all that shocking ghastly junk.<br>
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,<br>
They don't climb out the window sill,<br>
They never fight or kick or punch,<br>
They leave you free to cook the lunch<br>
And wash the dishes in the sink --<br>
But did you ever stop to think,<br>
To wonder just exactly what<br>
This does to your beloved tot?<br>
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!<br>
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!<br>
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!<br>
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND<br>
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND<br>
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!<br>
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!<br>
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!<br>
HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!<br>
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,<br>
'But if we take the set away,<br>
What shall we do to entertain<br>
Our darling children? Please explain!'<br>
We'll answer this by asking you,<br>
'What used the darling ones to do?<br>
'How used they keep themselves contented<br>
Before this monster was invented?'<br>
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?<br>
We'll say it very loud and slow:<br>
THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,<br>
AND READ and READ, and then proceed<br>
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!<br>
One half their lives was reading books!<br>
The nursery shelves held books galore!<br>
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!<br>
And in the bedroom, by the bed,<br>
More books were waiting to be read!<br>
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales<br>
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales<br>
And treasure isles, and distant shores<br>
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,<br>
And pirates wearing purple pants,<br>
And sailing ships and elephants,<br>
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,<br>
Stirring away at something hot.<br>
(It smells so good, what can it be?<br>
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)<br>
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter<br>
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,<br>
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,<br>
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-<br>
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,<br>
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,<br>
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,<br>
There's Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole-<br>
Oh, books, what books they used to know,<br>
Those children living long ago!<br>
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,<br>
Go throw your TV set away,<br>
And in its place you can install<br>
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.<br>
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,<br>
Ignoring all the dirty looks,<br>
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,<br>
And children hitting you with sticks-<br>
Fear not, because we promise you<br>
That, in about a week or two<br>
Of having nothing else to do,<br>
They'll now begin to feel the need<br>
Of having something to read.<br>
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!<br>
You watch the slowly growing joy<br>
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen<br>
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen<br>
In that ridiculous machine,<br>
That nauseating, foul, unclean,<br>
Repulsive television screen!<br>
And later, each and every kid<br>
Will love you more for what you did. </blockquote>
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