"Let Dogs Delight To Bark And Bite"
Context: Isaac Watts, concerned about the importance of proper moral education for young children and convinced that instruction carried by the vehicle of verse was more easily remembered than prose instruction, wrote Divine Songs. In Song XVI, the poet notes that it is the nature of dogs to bark and bite and for bears and lions to growl and fight, but children, he says, should follow the example of the Christ child and be gentle as lambs. The poem begins:
Let dogs delight to bark and bite,
For God has made them so,
Let bears and lions growl and fight,
For 'tis their nature too.
But, children, you should never let
Such angry passions rise:
Your little hands were never made
To tear each others' eyes.
Let love through all your actions run,
And all your words be mild:
Live like the Blessed Virgin's Son,
That sweet and lowly child.
His soul was gentle as a lamb;
And, as his stature grew,
He grew in favour both with man
And God his Father too.
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