THE BALKAN MUSES
Romania. Bulgaria. Macedonia. Albania. Greece. Slovenia
Transylvania. Croatia. Bosnia Herzegovina. Crete
A Lullaby for a Naughty Girl
Of all little girls who are born to be great;
And the greatest of Queens have all been little girls
And dried up their tears on their kerchiefs or curls.
Oh sleep; and your heart that has sobbed for so long
Will mend and grow merry and wake you to song;
For the world is lovelier place than it seems,
And a smack cannot follow you into your dreams.
The dark Cleopatra was slapped on the head,
And she wept as she lay in her great golden bed;
But the dark Cleopatra woke up with a smile
As she thought of the little boats out on the Nile.
She moaned and she murmered the Greek for "Alack!
But the sun rose in Argos, and wonderful joy
Came with the morning to Helen of Troy.
They sent Guinevere without supper to sleepIn her grey little room at the top of the Keep;
And the stars over Camelot waited and wept
Till the peeping moon told them that Guinevere slept.
There was grief in Castile and dismay in Madrid
When they slapped Isabella for something she did;
But she slept - and could laugh in the morning again
At the Dons of Castile, the Hidalgos of Spain.
And oh, how Elizabeth cried in her cot
When she wanted her doll and her Nanny said not!
But the sparrows awoke and the summer sun rose,
And there was the doll on the bed by her toes!
So sleep, my Penelope: slaps are the fate
of all little girls who are born to be great;
But the world is a lovelier place than it seems
And a smack cannot follow you into your dreams.
Emile Victor Rieu CBE (10 February 1887 – 11 May 1972)he retired as general editor of the Penguin Classics series, he had overseen the publication of about 160 volumes, he was far less known for his children's verse.
His own poems were very much a side-line for Rieu, mainly aimed at children, but they are not without their own charm.
What a lovely Poem xxx
