Skyscraper

(Rachel Field)

Do skyscrapers ever grow tired
Of holding themselves up high?
Do they ever shiver on frosty nights
With their tops against the sky?
Do they feel lonely sometimes
Because they have grown so tall?
Do they ever wish they could lie right down
And never get up at all?

Things to Do If You Are a Subway

(Bobbie Katz)

Pretend you are a dragon.
Live in underground caves.
Roar about underneath the city.
Swallow piles of people.
Spit them out at the next station.
Zoom through the darkness.
Be an express.
Go fast.
Make as much noise as you please.

City Quotes

• City Lights
  (song by Livingston Taylor)
• Crosstown Traffic
  (song by the Jimi Hendrix Experience)
• Downtown
  (song by Petula Clark)
• The city as a center where, any day in any year, there may be a fresh encounter with a new talent, a keen mind or a gifted specialist - this is essential to the life of a city. To play this role in our lives a city must have a soul - a university, a great art or music school, a cathedral or a great mosque or temple, a great laboratory or scientific center, as well as the libraries and museums and galleries that bring past and present together. A city must be a place where groups of women and men are seeking and developing the highest things they know. (Margaret Mead)
• The city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo. (Desmond Morris)
• The sensual mysticism of entire vertical being. (e.e. cummings on skyscrapers)
• Summer in the City
  (song by Lovin' Spoonful)
• The truth is that the city is a device for reducing stress - by giving humans a free choice of escapes from the pressure (along with the weather) of their environment. (Brigid Brophy)
• We Built This City
  (song by Starship)

Ping Pong

Whimsy on Doors

(Helen Harrington)

Doors are a wonderful invention
second to the wheel! Open one
at certain times and you will let
fresh air in,
a guest as sweet as Spring, saying
has been
walking among flowers or marshes.
If a gush
of Winter comes, you can - in a
rush -
close it quickly with a fervent bang!
You'll like doors - once you get the
hang
of how they work! They have the
terrific clout
to give two different worlds - In
and Out -
to you, at will. The trick, now and
again,
is knowing what to do with them -
and when!

Smuggler's Song

(Rudyard Kipling)

If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse's feet,
Don't go drawing back the blind or looking in the street,
Them that ask no questions isn't told a lie.
Watch the wall, my darling, when the Gentlemen go by!

Five and twenty ponies,
Trotting through the dark -
Brandy for the Parson,
'Baccy for the Clerk;
Laces for a lady, letters for a spy.
And watch the wall, my darling, when the Gentlemen go by!

Running round the woodlump if you chance to find
Little barrels, roped and tarred, all full of brandy-wind,
Don't you shout to come and look, nor use 'em for you play.
Put the brushwood back again - and they'll be gone next day!

If you see the stable-door setting open wide;
If you see a tired horse lying down inside;
If your mother mends a coat cut about and tore;
If the lining's wet and warm - don't you ask no more!

If you meet King George's men, dressed in blue and red,
You be careful what you say, and mindful what is said.
If they call you "pretty maid", and chuck you 'neath the chin,
Don't you tell where no one is, nor yet where no one's been!

Knocks and footsteps round the house - whistles after dark -
You've no call for running out till the house dogs bark.
Trusty's here, and Pincher's here, and see how dumb they lie -
They don't fret to follow when the Gentlemen go by!

If you do as you are told, likely there's a chance,
You'll be given a dainty doll, all the way from France,
With a cap of Valenciennes, and a velvet hood -
A present from the Gentlemen, along o' being good!

Five and twenty ponies,
Trotting through the dark -
Brandy for the Parson,
'Baccy for the Clerk.
Them that ask no questions isn't told a lie -
Watch the wall, my darling, when the Gentlemen go by!

Nursery Rhymes

I am only including rhymes that are not widely known. There are many sites on the internet where you can find common nursery rhymes.

Nursery Rhyme explanations:

Humpty Dumpty relates to King James IV of Scotland, who died at Flodden in 1513. He was a very large man who rode the largest horse in 16^th century Scotland nicknamed "The Wall." As he rode The Wall along a cliff side to join his troops, the horse slipped and the two fell to their deaths.

Jack Horner was a man who really lived in 16^th century England, and the plum he pulled out was a fine estate, which he got out of lands seized by Henry VIII from the church.

The Crooked Man was, according to Grip Fast, the publication of the Clan Leslie Society, was Sir Alexander Leslie (ca 1580-1661), who became the 1^st Earl of Leven and Lord Balgonie (1641). He was Lord General of the Army of the Covenant during the Scottish Bishop's War. The 'crooked mile' refers to his march to the border from Edinburgh. The opponent, King Charles I, was known as the 'crooked sixpence' because he was always short of funds to pay his soldiers. The 'crooked cat' was the Scottish Army. The two armies confronted one another in the battle of Duns in 1639 (where no blood was spilled) and 'lived together in a crooked little house' - Britain - until the English Civil War.

The origins for this nursery rhyme are: Miss Muffet is Mary Queen of Scots, Mary Stuart. In 1567 she was living in Scotland and she was Catholic. John Knox, a Protestant and major force in Scotland, forced Mary to Flee to England.

Mary's Lamb (original version)

(Sarah Hale)

This poem was first published in 1830. It was an immediate success. It was printed on silk handkerchiefs and sold in Boston bookstores. Currier and Ives made a print of Mary and her lamb. In 1834 the words were set to music and published by Mrs. Hale in her School Song Book. In 1844 the poem was published as a lesson in The First Eclectric Reader, the most popular schoolbook of its day. William McGuffey, the schoolbook's writer and editor, did not credit Mrs. Hale, and the poem became known as a Mother Goose rhyme.
In 1877, the verse was immortalized when Thomas Edison made a phonograph recording. "Mary had a little lamb" became the first words of recorded human speech.
Today the poem is usually shortened by eight lines and the lamb is referred to as "it" rather than "he."
Another accomplishment of the author, Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale, is helping persuade Abe Lincoln to declare Thanksgiving a National holiday.

Little Miss Tuckett

Yet Didn't You See?

Yet didn't you see, yet didn't you see,
      What naughty tricks they put upon me?
          They broke my pitcher,
              And spilled my water,
                  And buffed my mother,
                      And chid my daughter,
And kissed my sister instead of me.

Jack and Jill

The Man Who Wasn't There

(Hughes Mearns)

As I was going up the stair
I met a man who wasn't there;
He wasn't there again today!
I wish that he would go away.

Hickory, Dickory Dock

Hickory, dickory, dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one, the mouse ran down.
Hickory, dickory dock.

Hickory, dickory, dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck two, the mouse said, "Boo!"
Hickory, dickory dock.

Hickory, dickory, dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck three, the mouse said, "Whee!"
Hickory, dickory dock.

Hickory, dickory, dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck four, the mouse said, "No more!"
Hickory, dickory dock.

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Baa Baa Black sheep have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.
One for your sweater, and one for your rug...
One for your blanket that keeps you warm and snug.

Cluck Cluck red hen have you any eggs?
Yes sir, yes sir, as many as your legs.
One for your breakfast, and one for your lunch.
Come back tomorrow I'll have another bunch.

Moo moo brown cow have you milk for me
Yes sir, yes sir, tasty as can be.
Churn it into butter or make it into cheese.
Freeze it into ice cream or drink it if you please.

Buzz Buzz busy bee is your honey sweet.
Yes sir, yes sir, sweet enough to eat
Honey on your muffin and honey on your cake.
Honey by the spoonful as much as I can make.

Baa Baa Black sheep have you any wool.
Yes sir yes sir three bags full.

Lullabies

Dreams Are the Flowers (That Bloom in Your Heart)

(Jackie Cusic)

Rock-a-bye Baby

Rock-a-bye baby, in the tree top
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall
And down will come baby, cradle and all.

Note: The anonymous quatrain, Rock-a-bye Baby, is thought to be the first poetical effusion ever produced on American soil. It was supposedly inscribed on a piece of birch bark by an early settler at Plymouth, upon observing Indian cradles hung upon the boughs of trees, with the infants fastened into them - a novel sight to any European.

All Through The Night

All the Pretty Horses

Hush-a-bye don't you cry,
Go to sleep-y, little baby.
When you wake you shall have
All the pretty little horses.
Blacks and bays, dapple grays,
Coach and six white horses.
Hush-a-bye don't you cry,
Go to sleep-y, little baby.

Hush Little Baby

(Rick Schulman)