Heigh-ho! Babyhood! Tell me where you linger:
Let’s toddle home again, for we have gone astray;
Take this eager hand of mine and lead me by the finger
Back to the Lotus lands of the far-away.
Turn back the leaves of life; don’t read the story,–
Let’s find the _pictures_, and fancy all the rest:–
We can fill the written pages with a brighter glory
Than Old Time, the story-teller, at his very best!
Turn to the brook, where the honeysuckle, tipping
O’er its vase of perfume spills it on the breeze,
And the bee and humming-bird in ecstacy are sipping
From the fairy flagons of the blooming locust trees.
Turn to the lane, where we used to “teeter-totter,”
Printing little foot-palms in the mellow mold,
Laughing at the lazy cattle wading in the water
Where the ripples dimple round the buttercups of gold:
Where the dusky turtle lies basking on the gravel
Of the sunny sandbar in the middle-tide,
And the ghostly dragonfly pauses in his travel
To rest like a blossom where the water-lily died.
Heigh-ho! Babyhood! Tell me where you linger:
Let’s toddle home again, for we have gone astray;
Take this eager hand of mine and lead me by the finger
Back to the Lotus lands of the far-away.
(James Whitcomb Riley)
More Poetry from James Whitcomb Riley:
James Whitcomb Riley Poems based on Topics: Time, Nature, Gold, Life, Fairy, Laziness, Water- The Old-Home Folks (James Whitcomb Riley Poems)
- What Chris'mas Fetched The Wigginses (James Whitcomb Riley Poems)
- Squire Hawkins's Story (James Whitcomb Riley Poems)
- Bud's Fairy-Tale (James Whitcomb Riley Poems)
- A Session With Uncle Sidney (James Whitcomb Riley Poems)
- Blind (James Whitcomb Riley Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Life Poems, Time Poems, Nature Poems, Gold Poems, Water Poems, Fairy Poems, Laziness PoemsBased on Keywords: humming-bird, toddle, dragonfly, babyhood, story-teller, sandbar
- The Jamestown Anniversary Ode (James Barron Hope Poems)
- The Demon Of The Study (John Greenleaf Whittier Poems)
- For The Carrier Of The Mirror. 1826 (John Gardiner Calkins Brainard Poems)
- Hymn To Light (Abraham Cowley Poems)
- Upon The Death Of, Mr. Addison; Inscrib'd To The Earl Of Warwick (Nicholas Amhurst Poems)