I like my desk With papers thrown asunder, So I can hunt and plunder, And dig about down under The whole darn mess.
Just leave my desk — Don't you dare attempt to clean it; It matters not who's seen it; Leave it alone; I mean it; No foolishness!
Anyone who has been told to tidy up will recognize the speaker of "Beware!" right away. He loves his cluttered desk and wants it left exactly as it is. In the first stanza he explains why: all those scattered papers let him "hunt and plunder," digging around "down under" the pile. In his mind the mess works like a system, a kind of treasure hunt where he knows the good stuff is buried somewhere.
The second stanza turns from explanation to warning. He doesn't care who sees the desk, and he orders everyone to keep away from it, ending with a flat "No foolishness!"
The mood is playful and a little gruff. The rhymes ("asunder," "plunder," "under") bounce along like a grumbling chant, and the title's mock-dramatic "Beware!" sets up a joke: the speaker guards a pile of paper as fiercely as if it were a fortress. The poem is funny because the stubbornness feels so familiar.