The Dream
Herbert Asquith
My dream? Can I remember my dream?
I was floating down the nursery stair,
And my little terrier ran in front
With his feet treading on the air;
And when we came to the dining-room,
The King and the Queen were there:
And father and mother, two and two;
And a baby elephant from the Zoo,
Each on a golden chair;
And three soldiers, and Mary Rose
Riding an ostrich that pecked her toes,
And Uncle Jim
Looking very trim,
Eating a kipper.
And, when they had sung to the King,
They all sat down in a ring,
And played at hunt the slipper.
Then I saw a curling stream
And yellow flow’rs in a meadow,
And six little green frogs
Dancing a jig in the shadow:
And the tune came from a bough,
“Tweet, tweet, quiver,”
Sung by a little brown bird
That swayed above the river.
Then we all started to dance,
And Aunt Rebecca too;
Uncle Jim began to prance,
And the baby elephant blew
A curl of smoke from his cigar,
As he sat and watched the evening star.
And the little brown bird sang on,
Swaying above the river:
But a wind came whispering down,
And the leaves began to shiver.
Then with a crackly sound
Uncle Jim went flat:
He turned into a cricket-bat;
But Aunt Rebecca grew very round
And floated up like a black balloon,
Higher and higher, into the Moon.
The stars fell out of the sky;
The baby elephant whined:
“Time to get up” said nurse:
And “Flap” went the blind.