A New York Child's Garden of Verses
A New York Child's Garden of Verses
Original Text
Franklin P. Adams, Tobogganing on Parnassus (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page, 1913): 133-34. LE 2121t Robarts Library
1In winter I get up at night,
2And dress by an electric light.
3In summer, autumn, ay, and spring,
4I have to do the self-same thing.
5I have to go to bed and hear
6Pianos pounding in my ear,
7And hear the janitor cavort
8With garbage cans within the court.
9And does it not seem hard to you
10That I should have these things to do?
11Is it not hard for us Manhat-
12Tan children in a stuffy flat?
13It is very nice to think
14The world is full of food and drink;
15But, oh, my father says to me
16They cost all of his salaree.
17When I am grown to man's estate
18I shall be very proud and great;
19E'en now I have no reverence,
20'Cause I read comic supplements.
21New York is so full of a number of kids
22I'm sure pretty soon we shall be invalids.
23A child should always say what's true,
24And speak when he is spoken to;
25And then, when manhood's age he strikes,
26He may be boorish as he likes.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2003
Rhyme