free-verse27 lines

Songs Of Education: III. For The Cr'che

Form 8277059, Sub-Section K

I remember my mother, the day that we met,

A thing I shall never entirely forget;

And I toy with the fancy that, young as I am,

I should know her again if we met in a tram.

But mother is happy in turning a crank

That increases the balance at somebody's bank;

And I feel satisfaction that mother is free

From the sinister task of attending to me.

They have brightened our room, that is spacious and cool,

With diagrams used in the Idiot School,

And Books for the Blind that will teach us to see;

But mother is happy, for mother is free.

For mother is dancing up forty-eight floors,

For love of the Leeds International Stores,

And the flame of that faith might perhaps have grown cold,

With the care of a baby of seven weeks old.

For mother is happy in greasing a wheel

For somebody else, who is cornering Steel;

And though our one meeting was not very long,

She took the occasion to sing me this song:

"O, hush thee, my baby, the time soon will come

When thy sleep will be broken with hooting and hum;

There are handles want turning and turning all day,

And knobs to be pressed in the usual way;

O, hush thee, my baby, take rest while I croon,

For Progress comes early, and Freedom too soon."