Toyland

I.     There's a story no one knows,     But myself, about a rose     And a fairy and a star     Where the Toyland people are.     Once when I had gone to bed,     Mother said it was a dream,     From a rose above my head,     Growing by the window-beam,     Out there popped a fairy's head. II.     And he nodded at me: smiled:     Said, "You're fond of stories, eh?     Well, I know a star each child     Ought to know. It's far away     Foryour kind, but not for me.     I will take you to that star,     Where you'll hear new stories; see?     Close your eyes. It is n't far     That is, 't is n't far for me." III.     And he'd hardly spoken when     From the rose there came a moth;     And before you'd counted ten     We were on it, and were both     Flying to that star that made     Silver sparkles in the air.     And, though I was not afraid,     I was glad when we were there,     And the moth was stabled white     In a lily-bud, and we     Went to find the fay or sprite     Who, he said, would welcome me. IV.     And we found her.'T was n't long     Till we heard a twittering song,     And a toy-bird with white eyes     Flew before us from the skies,     Like those in my Noah's Ark,     And we followed it; and came     To the strangest land: our park     Is just like it, just the same.     Toy-trees, squirrels, birds and brooks,     And a castle on the hill,     Just like those in story-books;     And upon its windowsill     Leaned a lovely Princess. She     Smiled at me, and that was all,     As a doll smiles; and to me     She was like a great big doll. V.     Then, before I knew it, I     Was inside her palace, there     In the room; and everywhere     Dolls and story-books and, my!     All the dolls began to sing     Rhymes, or read; and others told     Stories just like everything:     Better stories than the old     Ones my father reads me in     Mother Goose and books like Grimm,     That he hates so to begin:     Tales for which I bother him,     Since, he says, both tales and rhymes     He has read a thousand times. VI.     Blue Beard and the Yellow Dwarf,     And the lovely Rapunzel,     She whose hair was once a scarf     For a prince to climb by; Nell,     Little Nell, or else her twin,     Who, somehow, had happened in,     And the Sleeping Beauty, who     Seemed asleep and sat there dumb;     Hansel and sweet Grethel too,     Snow-Drop and Hop-o'-my-Thumb;     Rumpelstiltzkin, Riding Hood,     And the Babes-lost-in-the-Wood,     Met around a little table,     Where I sat beside a Queen,     Queen of Hearts, and, dressed in green,     Robin Hood, a-eating tarts,     While old sop told a fable,     Sitting by the King of Hearts. VII.     And the waiters were Bo Peep,     Knave of Hearts and Marjory Daw;     Boy Blue, slow as if asleep,     And the Woman who slept on Straw.     And the little dishes all,     Though they seemed so, were not small;     Painted blue and green and gold     With the stories I'd heard told,     Pictures forming of themselves,     Of the Elf Queen and the Elves.     Never, never have I seen     Service like it. Then the talk!     All about the Fairy Queen     And the Land of Tarts and Pies,     Where those three fat brothers go,     Greedygut, with tiny eyes     Like a pig's; and Sleepyhead,     With his candle, going to bed;     And old creepy-footed Slow.     Of these three they made great talk,     And that Land where Scarecrows stalk,     And the Jack-o'-Lanterns grow,     Row on glaring goblin row. VIII.     Suddenly, among them there,     At my back, above my chair,     Cried a Cuckoo Clock, and why!     There I was back home; and I     Was n't nowhere but in bed     And my mother standing by     Smiling at me. I could cry     When I think the things they said     That I can'tremember now     Though I try and try and try.     But I knowthis anyhow:     I was in that star, I know,     And in Toyland. Does n't seem     Anything but true, although     Mother says it was a dream.