THE FLY-AWAY HORSE
by: Eugene Field (1850-1895)
- H, a wonderful
horse is the Fly-Away Horse--
- Perhaps you have seen him before;
- Perhaps, while you slept, his shadow has swept
- Through the moonlight that floats on the floor.
- For it's only at night, when the stars twinkle bright,
- That the Fly-Away Horse, with a neigh
- And a pull at his rein and a toss of his mane,
- Is up on his heels and away!
- The moon in the sky,
- As he gallopeth by,
- Cries: "Oh! What a marvelous sight!"
- And the Stars in dismay
- Hide their faces away
- In the lap of old Grandmother Night.
-
- It is yonder, out yonder, the Fly-Away Horse
- Speedeth ever and ever away--
- Over meadows and lane, over mountains and plains,
- Over streamlets that sing at their play;
- And over the sea like a ghost sweepeth he,
- While the ships they go sailing below,
- And he speedeth so fast that the men on the mast
- Adjudge him some portent of woe.
- "What ho, there!" they cry,
- As he flourishes by
- With a whisk of his beautiful tail;
- And the fish in the sea
- Are as scared as can be,
- From the nautilus up to the whale!
-
- And the Fly-Away Horse seeks those far-away lands
- You little folk dream of at night--
- Where candy-trees grow, and honey-brooks flow,
- And corn-fields with popcorn are white;
- And the beasts in the wood are ever so good
- To children who visit them there--
- What glory astride of a lion to ride,
- Or to wrestle around with a bear!
- The monkeys, they say:
- "Come on, let us play,"
- And they frisk in the coconut-trees:
- While the parrots, that cling
- To the peanut-vines sing
- Or converse with comparative ease!
-
- Off! scamper to bed -- you shall ride him to-night!
- For, as soon as you've fallen asleep,
- With a jubilant neigh he shall bear you away
- Over forest and hillside and deep!
- But tell us, my dear, all you see and you hear
- In those beautiful lands over there,
- Where the Fly-Away Horse wings his far-away course
- With the wee one consigned to his care.
- Then grandma will cry
- In amazement: "Oh, my!"
- And she'll think it could never be so.
- And only we two
- Shall know it is true--
- You and I, little precious! shall know!
"The Fly-Away Horse" is
reprinted from Poems of Childhood. Eugene Field. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1904. |
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POEMS BY EUGENE FIELD |
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