Benjamin Franklin King (1857-1894)
Toboggan
1Down from the hills and over the snow
2Swift as a meteor's flash we go,
3 Toboggan! Toboggan! Toboggan!
4Down from the hills with our senses lost,
5Jealous of cheeks that are kissed by the frost,
6 Toboggan! Toboggan! Toboggan!
7With snow piled high on housetop and hill,
8O'er frozen rivulet, river, and rill,
9Clad in her jacket of sealskin and fur,
10Down from the hills I'm sliding with her,
11 Toboggan! Toboggan! Toboggan!
12Down from the hills, what an awful speed!
13As if on the back of a frightened steed,
14 Toboggan! Toboggan! Toboggan!
15Down from the hills at the rise of the moon,
16Merrily singing the toboggan tune,
17 "Toboggan! Toboggan! Toboggan!"
18Down from the hills like an arrow we fly,
19Or a comet that whizzes along through the sky;
20Down from the hills! Oh, isn't it grand!
21Clasping your best winter girl by the hand,
22 Toboggan! Toboggan! Toboggan!
23Down from the hills and both growing old,
24Down from the hills we are nearing the fold:
25 Toboggan! Toboggan! Toboggan!
26Close to the homestead we hear the ring
27Of children's voices that cheerily sing,
28 "Toboggan! Toboggan! Toboggan!"
29Down from the hills and we hear the chime
30Of bells that are ringing out Old Father Time;
31Down from the hills we are riding away,
32Nearing the life with its endless day;
33 Toboggan! Toboggan! Toboggan!
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Ben King's Verse, ed. Nixon Waterman, introduction by John McGovern, biography by Opie Read (Chicago: Forbes, 1899): 54-55. PS 2169 K8 1899 Robarts Library.
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1998.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/21
Rhyme: aabccb
Other poems by Benjamin Franklin King
