No Baby in the House
No Baby in the House
Original Text
No Baby in the House, and Other Stories, for Children(New York: A. Roman, 1868): 7-8. www.unz.org/Pub/BurtchaellClara-1868
Reprinted in A Collection of Verse by California Poets from 1849 to 1915, comp. Augustin S. Macdonald (San Francisco: A. M. Robertson, 1914): 11. New York Public Library
1No baby in the house, I know, --
2 'Tis far too nice and clean;
3No toys by careless fingers strewn,
4 Upon the floors are seen.
5No finger-marks are on the panes,
6 No scratches on the chairs,
7No wooden men set up in rows,
8 Or marshaled off in pairs;
9No little stockings to be darned,
10 All ragged at the toes,
11No pile of mending to be done,
12 Made up of baby-clothes;
13No little troubles to be soothed,
14 No little hands to fold,
15No grimy fingers to be washed,
16 No stories to be told;
17No tender kisses to be given,
18 No nicknames, "Dove" and "Mouse";
19No merry frolic after tea, --
20 No baby in the house.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2004
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