Songs for Parents | Page 6

drink
that's sweet and thick.
Flowers dance across the walls,
Mother's face seems far away,
She's the audience, I'm the play,
She
will clap for curtain calls.
No!--I do not want to play!

Seven thrones around my bed,
Circling gold about my head--

Angels always fly away!
Sally
If I were a stately sailboat,
I'd sail to Zanzibar,
I'd sail the seven
secret seas,
Where the secret cities are,
And some day I'd be sailing
with the wind before my prow,
And all the mermaids of the sea
would clamber up the bow.
They'd beckon me with laughter,
They'd
beckon me with smiles,
They'd show me cakes and candies
In half a
dozen styles,
They'd promise me a life of ease
Eating sweets
beneath the seas,
They'd promise me a life of play--
A never ending
holiday;
But I would say quite plainly,
And, oh, how stern I'd look!

Do you think that you can tempt me
While Sally is our cook?
If I were a little fire balloon
I'd float aloft to Mars,
I'd pay a call on
Venus
And chatter with the stars,
And just as I'd be fluttering across
the yellow moon,
The angels would come singing a solemn Sunday
tune.
They'd beckon to me gravely,
They'd tell me I could stay,

They'd show me all the jewels
That pave the milky way.
They'd
promise me a golden crown
And silver robes like 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,