Little boy blue

Post photo: playing boy | © Shutterstock

Today it just has to be a poem again and one that I always enjoy reading myself. its author Eugene Field probably first published it in Chicago weekly in 1888.

Field then became better known for his 1892 volume of poetry, A Little Book of Western Verse, which, in addition to the poem Dutch Lullaby, which I also highly recommend, also contains the poem below.

I first heard the poem in 1976, in a magazine interpretation Mad, which, by the way, was required reading for us students when I was at school.

Little boy blue

The little toy dog ​​is covered with dust,
  But sturdy and stanch he stands;
And the little toy soldier is red with rust,
  And his musket molds in his hands.
Time was when the little toy dog ​​was new,
  And the soldier was passing fair;
And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue
  Kiss them and put them there.

"Now, don't you go till I come," he said,
  "And don't you make any noise!"
So, toddling off to his trundle bed,
  He dreams of the pretty toys;
And, as he was dreaming, an angel song
  Awakened our Little Boy Blue –
Oh! the years are many, the years are long,
  But the little toy friends are true!

Ay, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand,
  Everyone in the same old place –
Awaiting the touch of a little hand,
  The smile of a little face;
And they wonder, as waiting the long years through
  In the dust of that little chair,
What has become of our Little Boy Blue,
  Since he kissed them and put them there.

Eugene FieldD, 1888

The parody mentioned above, which by the way is by Frank Jacobs I don't want to withhold from you:

The little toy dog ​​is covered with dust;
The Tinkertoys red on the shelf;
The little toy soldiers are gathering rust,
And the teddy bear sits by himself.

The little toy engine won't puff any more,
And, golly, I feel like a boob—
I've filled up his playroom with toys from the store,
But my kid won't get up from the tube.

Frank Jacobs, 1976