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"Listen to the MUSTN'TS, child, Listen to the DON'TS. Listen to the SHOULDN'TS The IMPOSSIBLES, the WONTS. Listen to the NEVER HAVES, Then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. ANYTHING can be."

The poem

I understand the definition of "don't have" when someone have not anything. But here in this poem, I can't get what the author is indicating to by saying "listen to NEVER HAVES." Does it mean author saying "listen to your weaknesses or qualities you don't have."

I am not native speaker. Sorry if I comprehend this in wrong way.

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This is a poem from a book of poetry for children.

The basic message to the child is all the negatives the child will hear are wrong. The author is really suggesting not listening to them; the truth is that “anything can happen, anything can be.”

So the author is not suggesting that the child attend to weaknesses-just the opposite.

Poetry cannot be expected to parse as standard English.

You could think of “never haves” as, for example, “You'll never have any chance of going to college.”

See the Wikipedia page for the author.

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  • I see nothing non-standard at all in this little poem. Just an unusual use of contracted verbs as nouns. Commented yesterday
  • 2
    I would add that Never Have suggests Since we never did that, you can't either. Commented yesterday
  • @YosefBaskin yes. Things that "never have happened" before, may happen in the future anyway. Commented yesterday
  • @HemiPoweredDrone Yes, that's why it's sour advice. Commented yesterday
  • People who say “it’s impossible” are the IMPOSSIBLES. People who say “it won’t...” are the WONT’S. People who say “never has it...” are the NEVER HAVES. Commented yesterday

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