Songs for Parents | Page 6

eider-down,?They'd give me harps with shiny strings?And wonderfully fluffy wings;?BUT--I would tell them plainly?I didn't want to die--?Till all the angel cooks had learned?How Sally makes mince pie!
SONGS FOR A CHRISTMAS TREE
Bundles
A bundle is a funny thing,?It always sets me wondering;?For whether it is thin or wide?You never know just what's inside.
Especially on Christmas week,?Temptation is so great to peek!?Now wouldn't it be much more fun?If shoppers carried things undone?
The Candy Santa Claus
I'm very fond of candles?With their quaint coquettish way,?But alas! I wooed too often,?And now my life's to pay.
They knew I was important?When they decked the Christmas tree,?Yes, they hung me on the tip-top?For all the world to see.
But, alas! A lady candle?Has come with me to the top,?And I'm melting with affection,?I'm dying drop by drop.
The Tinsel Star
I'm just a shiny tinsel star,?Boxed all the time as such things are,?And only used just once a year,?Oh, life is very dull and drear!
A real star has far fields to roam,?A tinsel star must stay at home.?It is a terrible vexation?To be a silly imitation!
The Ambitious Mouse
If all the world were candy?And the sky were frosted cake,?Oh, it would be a splendid job?For a mouse to undertake!
To eat a path of sweetmeats?Through candy forest aisles--?Explore the land of Pepper-mint?Stretched out for miles and miles.
To gobble up a cloudlet,?A little cup-cake star,?To swim a lake of liquid sweet?With shores of chocolate bar.
But, best of all the eating,?Would be the toothsome fat,?Triumphant hour of mouse-desire,?To eat a candy cat!
Prayer
Last night I crept across the snow,?Where only tracking rabbits go,?And then I waited quite alone?Until the Christmas radiance shone!
At midnight twenty angels came,?Each white and shining like a flame.?At midnight twenty angels sang,?The stars swung out like bells and rang.
They lifted me across the hill,?They bore me in their arms until?A greater glory greeted them.?It was the town of Bethlehem.
And gently, then, they set me down,?All worshipping that holy town,?And gently, then, they bade me raise?My head to worship and to praise.
And gently, then, the Christ smiled down.?Ah, there was glory in that town!?It was as if the world were free?And glistening with purity.
And in that vault of crystal blue,?It was as if the world were new,?And myriad angels, file on file,?Glorified in the Christ-child's smile.
It was so beautiful to see?Such glory, for a child like me,?So beautiful, it does not seem?It could have been a Christmas dream.
About the author:
John Chipman Farrar (1896-1974), late of the New York publishing firm of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, attended Yale University where his poem "Portraits" was the Yale University Prize Poem in 1916. After serving during the First World War as an intelligence officer with the U.S. Air Service, Farrar returned to Yale and graduated in 1919. His first book "Forgotten Shrines" was published late that same year as the second volume of the Yale Series of Younger Poets, reprinted in 1971, over half a century later.
After graduation, Farrar turned to publishing and literary criticism, editing George H. Doran Company's periodical "The Bookman". Between 1927 and 1929, Farrar was editor at Doubleday, Doran and Company. In mid-1929, he and two sons of the famous mystery writer Mary Robert Rinehart started the publishing firm if Farrar and Rinehart, Inc. His connection with that firm lasted until 1945, although he was absent during the war years assisting in U.S. government psychological war efforts. Farrar and Rinehart was later absorbed by Henry Holt.
As a young editor in New York, Farrar volunteered in 1922 for the organizing committee of an American chapter of PEN (originally Poets, Essayists and Novelists) founded in England the year before by Sappho (Amy Dawson Scott) to foster support of visiting foreign writers. PEN grew quickly to become an international advocate for freedom of expression and continues its activism to this day. (See )
After the Second World War, the American chapter of PEN foundered for lack of direction. Farrar, co-principal of the newly formed publishing house of Farrar, Straus and Company, now Farrar, Straus and Giroux, stepped in to refocus its energies and recruit dozens of new members. He served as president twice, once from 1951-1953 and again from 1963-1965.
In his roles as both and editor and a publisher, Farrar had a lasting impact on literature through the years. Farrar, Straus & Giroux has published many Nobel Laureates (20 as of 1995) and dozens of distinguished poets and authors. It is my privilege to reprint this etext of some of his own work for posterity.
? Stewart A. Levin
End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of Songs for Parents, by John Farrar
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