Here's another song for the Mitzi Drives the Bus EP:
Swampland Lullaby
Lyrics: Farida Dowler
Music: James Royce Shannon "Toora Loora Looral (That's an Irish Lullaby")
Over in the marshes
Many nights ago
The spring frog croaked his songs of love
With sweet tones from below.*
He couldn’t call with gusto
For the owls were on the wing--
With fine-tuned ears they’d hunt him,
So he softly had to sing:
Pi-po-pi-po-pi-po, Pi-po-pi-po-pie
Pi-po-pi-po-pi-po, the bugs and gnats do fly
The world is always hungry, someday we all shall die,
Pi-po-pi-po-pi-po, that’s a swampland lullaby.
Today's Poetry Friday Roundup (and you can join in too) is at AmoxCalli
*Recently changed from "tones so sweet and low" because spring peepers' calls are actually high pitched. You can listen to the "pi-po" of the spring peeper here.
10 comments:
Awesome. Makes me wanna dance, even though it's a lullaby.
What is it with lullabyes and death? Does it have to do with the old belief that sleep was a form of death, or what? (It's not just this one, that's for sure, that talks about death or dying -- think of rock-a-bye baby!)
Jules: "You can dance if you want to...!"
Kelly: I don't know! It shows up in prayers, too ("If I should die before I wake," and "now and at the hour of our death").
Your song, which is fabulous (I love anything to do with toads and frogs and tadpoles) reminds me of a book called : A song for Little Toad.
Are you familiar? It seems to me that it would be right up your alley!
Diana: A Song for Little Toad does indeed sound right up my alley! My library doesn't have it, so I'll have to place an Interlibrary Loan request. Thanks so much.
That is really sweet and lovely. I want you to come and sing it to me at the end of a long hard day.
Cool! My grandma used to sing that Irish lullaby.
Cool! My grandma used to sing that Irish lullaby.
Diana's comment reminded me of a book I loved when I was a children's librarian. "Little Frog's Song" by Alice Schertle. Thanks for the reminder!
That's a great poem/song! I miss the frogs croaking at night. All we have here are crickets and the occasional barn owl.
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