SEEIN' THINGS
by: Eugene Field (1850-1895)
- AIN'T afraid
uv snakes or toads, or bugs or worms or mice,
- An' things 'at girls are skeered uv I think are awful nice!
- I'm pretty brave I guess; an' yet I hate to go to bed,
- For, when I'm tucked up warm an snug an' when my prayers
are said,
- Mother tells me "Happy Dreams" an' takes away the
light,
- An' leaves me lyin' all alone an' seein' things at night!
-
- Sometimes they're in the corner, sometimes they're by the
door,
- Sometimes they're all a-standin' in the middle uv the floor;
- Sometimes they are a-sittin' down, sometimes they're walkin'
round
- So softly and so creepy-like they never make a sound!
- Sometimes they are as black as ink, an' other times they're
white--
- But color ain't no difference when you see things at night!
-
- Once, when I licked a feller 'at had just moved on our street,
- An' father sent me up to bed without a bite to eat,
- I woke up in the dark an saw things standin' in a row,
- A-lookin' at me cross-eyed an' p'intin' at me -- so!
- Oh, my! I wuz so skeered 'at time I never slep' a mite--
- It's almost alluz when I'm bad I see things at night!
-
- Lucky thing I ain't a girl or I'd be skeered to death!
- Bein' I'm a boy, I duck my head an' hold my breath.
- An' I am, oh so sorry I'm a naughty boy, an' then
- I promise to be better an' I say my prayers again!
- Gran'ma tells me that's the only way to make it right
- When a feller has been wicked an' sees things at night!
-
- An' so when other naughty boys would coax me into sin,
- I try to skwush the Tempter's voice 'at urges me within;
- An' when they's pie for supper, or cakes 'at's big an' nice,
- I want to -- but I do not pass my plate f'r them things twice!
- No, ruther let Starvation wipe me slowly out o' sight
- Than I should keep a-livin' on an' seein' things at night!
"Seein' Things" is reprinted
from Modern American Poetry. Ed. Louis Untermeyer. New
York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1919. |
MORE
POEMS BY EUGENE FIELD |
|