Springfield Town is Butterfly Town And Other Poems for Children

“I come to show a butterfly
Can sometimes be a bird,
And teach to you a flash of light
Can sometimes be a word,
The hieroglyphs upon his wings
The printed song he sings.

“For butterflies have their Pegasus
To ride beyond their range
Into lands of learning
That they consider strange.

“You write your memos on your cuff
And look at them in haste.
This aviator does not let
His wing-space go to waste.”

In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree

I watch three apple blossoms on the topmost bough
Of my proud Johnny Appleseed gnarled apple tree,
There with Robin Redbreast, singing love to me.

It is the first hot day of spring
And now
The wild sun and the clouds, I know not how,
With Robin and the three
Sing American
To me.

The largest blossom sings
My name is Elizabeth C.
A littler blossom sings
My name is Susan D.
The little blossom sings
My name is Nicky C.
But Robin Redbreast sings
All three
Are Poetree
And I am Poetree,
Our names are all one name,
Just Poetree.

Then my three apple blossoms are so great
They fill my whole wide sky with their estate.
Perfume and Poetree,
Prophecy and incense are set free
And they redeem the gnarled old apple tree,
Vindicate the worm-gnawed, blight spoiled long-surviving apple tree.

Adventures with the Eldest Daughter Eight Years Old

We will ride in flying machines,
To Hillville.
Then we will ride in autos of gold
To the cross roads.
Then we will ride on the backs of mice
To a flour mill.

Then we will ride on tremendous clouds
To nowhere,
Thus we will ride
Where the ride is the whole adventure.

And then on our tiptoes across the still small nursery,
On past the babies' cribs and the toys so funny,
We will step through the flowered Chinese wall paper,
Instantly to where the dragons caper,
Instantly
To somewhere, somewhere, somewhere.
A place where they live on citron and tea and cinnamon,
And the Chinese Polly always wants a cracker.

The Lotus under the Pacific

There is a Lotus, under the sea,
Near to land, in the channel sand,
But the currents come from so far away
The Lotus knows what all seas say;

There is a Lotus under the sea,
It glitters there, by galleon loot,
And the end of the rainbow comes to the root.

And the fruit of the flower is a dream of light,
And the Lotus is gold, and ivory-white,
And the Lotus, by love, may be plainly seen:
True hearts may watch the fine flower sway,
If they stroll by the shore or swim in the bay.

It was born from the touch of your fairy hand,
When on your first deep-swimming day,
You dared the channel and crossed the bay,
And touched for the first time deep-sea sand,
And saw where the galleon jewels stay,
And the first time lost all sight of the land.

ROSES

Now there are roses in the rocks
If you will cut the rocks in two.
And there are roses in the rings
If you will saw the oaks in two.
And there are roses on great boughs
In orchards where the spring is new.
And there are roses on the thorns
Of every hedge the wide world through!

The Bohunk and the Dolly

Out of a dried-up cabbage patch,
Out of a farm with a queer Hunk name,
Out of a cabbage gone to grief,
A lovely cabbage dolly came,
A plume upon her pale-green curls,
A voice like small celestial pearls,
Oh, shrill and sweet
It would waken flowers
Dead for centuries or hours.

She had a masterful way with her
That would the beetle thugs disarm,
And scare bad pups and crows away,
And make the whole world jump and play,
Except
Of course
The Hunk who owned the farm.

Young Man Jumping Jack

Young man jumping jack,
He jumped low.
Young man jumping jack,
He jumped high.
And young man jumping jack,
He jumped back.
And young man jumping jack touched the sky.
And young man jumping jack
Wasn't so slow.

The Warning

Flying straight at me
With an air of alarm,
With uplifted finger
To warn me of harm,
The autumn leaf said:
“The wild rose is dead.
Beware, lest her ghost
Break your window tonight,
And tear down the curtains
And put out the light,
And snatch you away
To the snow where she lies,
With ice in her breast
Over her eyes.”

The Fairy Land

I saw the great fountain,
Away off fairyland,
That sends down the rain.
There in the fountain there
Stood a proud lady Jane.

And I stood in my vision and
Shouted to Jane,
“Come in out of the rain.”
She said, “This is Fairyland.
We don't mind the rain.”

Rouse Up, You Lazy Salamanders

“Rouse up, you lazy salamanders,
And leap into the fire.”
Shout their bold commanders,
Cracking their whips with ire.
Who are their bold commanders,
Astride their sweating backs?

The Fighting Frog

The frog who swam
Around the world
Waving a thorn
In one webbed hand
And saved his friend,
The eel, from slaughter
Received for his reward
For breakfast,
The eel's son and daughter.

The Orchid

The orchid with the eagle claw
Climbed the breadfruit tree
Swaying in the Southern night
And squeezed it all the year
Clung with dreadful eagle claw
Till most of the breadfruit died
But the orchid bloomed in pride.

Peacock Epigram

The curled moons in the peacock plumes
Declare that there are things
Beyond the thoughts of Merlin
In the vanities of Kings.

Buzz-Saws

Who does the sawing under the seas?
The sword-fishes saw
Whatever they please,
The sharks, the crabs, the giant trees
It took a million years to grow,
And the mermaids weep when they saw them so.

When the sun sinks hissing into the ocean,
The sword-fishes come
With squealing commotion,
And while the sun's in a dying state,
They saw his gold into pieces of light.

Playing Card Drawing

The dog was quite vexed
To see the rat stand
With fire in his eye
And a knife in his hand.

The dog was quite mad
To see the rat stop
And shake a brave paw
Like a bum at a cop.

The Cat Pegasus

The good cats have a Pegasus,
A proud ghost, very strong.
He will not teach the cats to fly,
Nor teach them song.
His opera is excellent,
His monologues are great,
Ranging from orator
Saving his native state
To an actor speaking East Lynne lines
In a way to carry weight.
And he can carol manfully,
Higher than this and higher,
Outdoing Wagner even in
The Song of The Magic Fire.
And though this cat can sing like men
And the kittens ride his back,
Hoping to learn the notes his way,
He keeps their voices slack.
He wants to be the only cat
In Heaven that sings, and then
He loves their tortured hopeless hope
To be at last like men!

Cork-Bird Picture

Said the ostrich to the chicken,
“Your outlook must be poor.
Why do you scratch for worms
About this cottage door?”

Said the chicken to the ostrich,
“Refrain from verbal knocks.
I'd rather live on worms
Than nails and rocks.”

The Unexpected Door

Yesterday when we walked up the hill
We found an unexpected door.
We knocked there once,
Then four times more.
The door opened.
And we saw a place
Lighted by a fairy's holy face.
She flew before us like a light,
And brought us to a room
Where there were one hundred giants
Sitting in a row dressed in white.
Every giant read a different book,
His own diary
In there was proud to look.

Every giant seemed quite alone,
Every giant read his book with love,
Yet turned upon his neighbors look of stone.
You said: “These must be literary men.”
I said: “The fairy is your sweet soul then.
See, she is bringing gems to us
And flowers unknown to men.”

The Mouse Pegasus

The best mice have their Pegasus,
As well as the best rats.
The Pegasus of mice is small
But can outfly the bats.
He can run streaks and he can shoot
Like a star-beam through the night,
And squeal a heart-transfixing tune,
And is a delicate sight.

Boys, you must not despise this bird
Because you can hear a louder noise
Coming through the radio.
Mice must have their joys
As well as husky boys.

One Boaster

Said Mr. Mountain Goat,
“Pray note! I can butt better
Than a sheep-ram.”
Just then he met
A catamount
Who ate him like a
Slice of ham.

Another Boaster

“Ba Ba,” said the proud old battering ram,
“I can butt better than a goat.”
Just then a farmer sheared him well,
And sold his wool to make a coat.

The Independent Thomas

He would slip through the brush and the thorn,
Treating the scratches with scorn.

He would slide through a perilous street,
Emerging both haughty and neat.

The Calico Tom took the town
In a jacket of orange and brown.

But we gave him his supper in vain.
He walked in the woods in the rain.

He slipped through the woods on the ice,
Out-skating the shadows and mice.

A Meritorious Villainous Baker-Man

A villain with a big mustache
And ears just like a devil,
Nevertheless, when selling pies
Was strictly on the level.

The Yap Yap and the Clap Trap

Says the Yap Yap to the Clap Trap,
“Why do you grow so big?”
Says the Clap Trap to the Yap Yap,
“By eating like a pig.”

Rhyme for the Turkeys

There were fine great wigwams
By the river,
And five tremendous turkeys appeared
With gobble-gobbles wicked and weird
And struttings marvellous and vain.
These turkey gods that the Indians feared
Pitched the wigwams into the river,
And ate the Indians like small grain.

A Big-Eared Rat

A big-eared rat once heard a cat,
A mile away or more.
Alas the rat was eaten
By a cat next door!

The Illinois State Mews

A kitten ran a paper:
The Illinois State Mews,
To please his kitten friends
And air his kitten views.
One editorial said:
“Young pigeons
Are good to eat.”
Another one said:
“Always light
On your feet.”

Grandma Graymalkins

Grandma Graymalkins
Has a long nose,
She follows it
Wherever she goes.

What Happened in the Town of Gosh

(Gosh is a well-known town in India.)

There is an elephant far away,
In the jungles of India, flowery and gay;
This elephant leads his tribe through the wood,
To find all the spinach to eat that is good.

He leads away from the haunts of men
All young elephants in his ken.

For once his great-uncle came too near
To the town of Gosh,
Men cut off his rear,
And took him to Barnum all forlorn,
And Barnum fed him pop and popcorn,
And put a gold earring in one ear.

The Butterflies Showing Off

The snail and the butterflies
Ran a race.
The butterflies flew
All around the place.
And did the snail beat them?
No, they left him behind
At the very last minute,
Which was proud and unkind.

The White Rose and the Butterfly

The white rose and the butterfly
Met in the wind and the weather,
They faced the sunset and the night,
And looked at the clouds together.

A Mud Hen

A mud hen exacting and conscientious
Was full of prunes
And quite contentious.
She would peck you,
Being quite contentious,
But lay good eggs,
Being conscientious.

The Crane

The crane flew by the pepper bush
As the evening star was dim.

The Invisible Flowers

There are flowers
That stand still all day,
And invisible flowers that fly,
Boats of the air,
That float
To the sun,
And are seen
By the spiritual eye.

The Mouse

The mouse sat writing poems for the humming birds to carry
To the mouse in an adjoining house
He hoped to marry.

The Red Ant

The red ant sat on the sugar lump
And called the black ant names
And made a public matter
Of all her secret shames.

The Dazzling Bird

A dazzling bird of high degree sat sitting on her nest.
The seven purple eggs beneath
Made music in her chest.

The Reed that Loved the Wave

A reed loved a wave
On the edge of Michigan Lake.
I saw the wave, leap,
And I saw the reed break.

Round, Round the Montain Flew

Round, round the mountain flew
The happy lovers, two by two;
Green and purple, vair and gold,
Glowed the mountain and each wing.

Toward it, a chameleon,
An opal phosphorescent thing.
What was on the mountain top,
The picture does not say,
And I have never been there
And am not on the way.

The Swan with the Crown

Your wedding day to hail,
Bringing fairy mail,
The swan with the crown
Came gliding out of the nursery tale,
Swimming down the Sangamon river,
And under him swam a swan with a crown.
A swan
Upside down,
Swimming down the Sangamon river,
Dressed in feathers, snowy and pale.

My Sixty-First Poem on the Moon

“The moon's a little planet,
With a hundred dried-up seas.
If we were there, we could not breathe;
And if we stayed, we'd freeze.”

Thus spoke the lean astronomer
With the mossy locks of grey.
He had a long brass telescope,
A truly learned way.

“The clouds are carpets,”
Said his pretty little son.
“This evening I will climb the roof,
And take a ride on one.”

“The moon's a big brass door
I'll open wide,
And look into the nursery,
And see what's on the floor.”

University of Virginia Library

Springfield Town is Butterfly Town