[Editor: This poem by C. J. Dennis was published in A Book for Kids, 1921.]
Lullaby
You are much too big to dandle,
And I will not leave the candle.
Go to sleep. .
You are growing naughty, rather,
And I’ll have to speak to father.
Go to sleep!
If you’re good I shall not tell, then.
Oh, a story? Very well, then.
Once upon a time, a king, named Crawley Creep,
Had a very lovely daughter . . . .
You don’t want a drink of water!
Go to sleep! There! There!! Go to sleep.
—————
I wonder why I wear a tie. It is not warm to wear;
But if I left it off someone would say it was not there.
I wonder, if I took a whiff of father’s pipe for fun,
Would I be big and strong like him, or just his small, sick son?
I wonder when our old white hen will know her squawk betrays her.
I think she lets us find her eggs just so that we shall praise her.
Source:
C. J. Dennis. A Book for Kids, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, [1921], page 115
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