Thursday, October 14, 2010

Poem I Love

Song For a Fifth Child

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth, empty the dustpan, poison the moth, hang out the washing and butter the bread, sew on a button and make up a bed. Where is the mother whose house is so shocking? She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue (lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo). Dishes are waiting and bills are past due (pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo). The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo. Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue? (lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow, for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow. So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep. I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

3 comments:

Hodgepodgemom said...

I have the last paragraph of that poem in a frame above my washer and dryer. If I stop and think on it too long I just might cry!

Oh so many blessings of motherhood! ~Smiles~ Tricia

Dolly said...

Love this. So, are you trying to tell us something with the title of this poem??

Brandy said...

Dolly, I wish! We are hoping for another little Sexton :0) I did think about that as I posted that poem. It would have been a fun way to announce it!