Eugene Field (1850-1895)
Pittypat and Tippytoe
1All day long they come and go--
2Pittypat and Tippytoe;
3 Footprints up and down the hall,
4 Playthings scattered on the floor,
5 Finger-marks along the wall,
6 Tell-tale smudges on the door--
7By these presents you shall know
8Pittypat and Tippytoe.
9How they riot at their play!
10And a dozen times a day
11 In they troop, demanding bread--
12 Only buttered bread will do,
13 And the butter must be spread
14 Inches thick with sugar too!
15And I never can say "No,
16Pittypat and Tippytoe!"
17Sometimes there are griefs to soothe,
18Sometimes ruffled brows to smooth;
19 For (I much regret to say)
20 Tippytoe and Pittypat
21 Sometimes interrupt their play
22 With an internecine spat;
23Fie, for shame! to quarrel so--
24Pittypat and Tippytoe!
25Oh the thousand worrying things
26Every day recurrent brings!
27 Hands to scrub and hair to brush,
28 Search for playthings gone amiss,
29 Many a wee complaint to hush,
30 Many a little bump to kiss;
31Life seems one vain, fleeting show
32To Pittypat and Tippytoe!
33And when day is at an end,
34There are little duds to mend;
35 Little frocks are strangely torn,
36 Little shows great holes reveal,
37 Little hose, but one day worn,
38 Rudely yawn at toe and heel!
39Who but you could work such woe,
40Pittypat and Tippytoe!
41On the floor and down the hall,
42Rudely smutched upon the wall,
43 There are proofs in every kind
44 Of the havoc they have wrought,
45 And upon my heart you'd find
46 Just such trade-marks, if you sought;
47Oh, how glad I am 'tis so,
48Pittypat and Tippytoe!
Notes
22] internecine: deadly.
42] smutched: smudged
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): 139-44.
First publication date:
1904
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1997.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/27
Rhyme: aabcbcdd
Other poems by Eugene Field
