Eugene Field (1850-1895)
Little Boy Blue
1The Little toy dog is covered with dust,
2 But sturdy and stanch he stands;
3And the little toy soldier is red with rust,
4 And the musket moulds in his hands.
5Time was when the little toy dog was new,
6 And the soldier was passing fair;
7And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue
8 Kissed them and put them there.
9"Now, don't you go till I come," he said,
10 "And don't you make any noise!"
11So, toddling off to his trundle-bed,
12 He dreamt of the pretty toys;
13And, as he was dreaming, an angel song
14 Awakened our Little Boy Blue--
15Oh! the years are many, the years are long,
16 But the little toy friends are true!
17Aye, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand,
18 Each in the same old place--
19Awaiting the touch of a little hand,
20 The smile of a little face;
21And they wonder, as waiting the long years through
22 In the dust of that little chair,
23What has become of our Little Boy Blue,
24 Since he kissed them and put them there.
Notes
2] stanch: staunch, steadfast.
11] trundle-bed: low bed on casters.
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: Eugene Field, Lullaby-Land: Poems of Childhood (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1904): 185-88; facsimile copy of autograph ms in Slason Thompson's Life of Eugene Field (New York: Appleton, 1927): opp. p. 318.
First publication date:
1888
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1997.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/27
Composition date:
1888
Composition date note: (Conrow 182)
Rhyme: ababcdcd
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