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Little boy kneels at the foot of the bed, Droops on the little hands little gold head, Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares! Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.
God bless Mummy. I know that's right Wasn't it fun in the bath tonight? The cold's so cold, and the hot's so hot Oh! God Bless Daddy-I quite forgot.
If I open my fingers a little bit more I can see Nanny's dressing gown on the floor Its a beautiful blue, but it hasn't a hood Oh! God bless Nanny and make her good.
Mine has a hood and if I lie in bed And put the hood right over my head And I shut my eyes and curl up small And nobody knows I am there at all.
Oh! Thank you God, for a lovely day And what was the other I had to say? I said "Bless Daddy" so what can it be? Oh! Now I remember it. God Bless me.
Little boy kneels at the foot of the bed, Droops on the little hands little gold head, Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares! Christopher Robin is saying his prayers. |
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Vespers was A. A Milne's best known and most popular poem.
A. A Milne wrote 'Vespers' for his wife Daphne Milne and it got first published
un-illustrated in 'Vanity Fair' in January 1923, for which she received 50 dollars.. It was however, Christopher Robin's most hated poem. As he writes in his book 'The Enchanted Places', it bought him fist clenching, lip-biting embarrassment. Vespers always seemed to be a poem of a good little boys saying his prayers. But if one looks closely its that of a boy 'not saying' his prayers. As written in 'The Enchanted Places' Pg. 28, "Vespers is not a sentimental poem, its a cynical one". He admits that the boy in the poem was him at three, but refuses to accept that his thoughts ever wandered elsewhere while saying his prayers. "Did my thoughts wander? Were they engaged on other, more exciting things? The answer-and let me say in loud and clear-is NO. Would I agree that prayer meant nothing to a child of three? If the stress is on the last word, I must be careful: I may be thinking of a child of four. All I can accurately say is that I can recall no occasion when this was so." (The Enchanted Places, pg. no 30-31) |
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