Now I Lay me Down to Study
Now I Lay me Down to Study
Original Text
Marcia and Jon Pankake, A Prairie Home Companion Folk Song Book (London: Faber and Faber, 1989): 98.
2I pray, dear Lord, I won't go nutty
3And if I fail to learn this junk
4I pray, oh Lord, that I won't flunk
5But if I do, don't pity me at all
6Just lay my bones in study hall
7Tell the teacher I've done my best
8Then pile my books upon my chest
9Now I lay me down to rest
10I pray I pass tomorrow's test
11If I should die before I wake
12That's one less test I'll have to take.
Notes
1] A parody of an 18th-century children's prayer popularized by the New England Primer:
Now I lay me down to take my sleep,(1777 edn.) Back to Line
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2010
Form