✦ The Poem ✦
The Shut-Eye Train
by Eugene Field, from Poems of Childhood (1904 collected edition). Public domain.
Come, my little one, with me! There are wondrous sights to see As the evening shadows fall; In your pretty cap and gown, Don’t detain The Shut-Eye train— “Ting-a-ling!” the bell it goeth, “Toot-toot!” the whistle bloweth, And we hear the warning call: “All aboard for Shut-Eye Town!”
Over hill and over plain Soon will speed the Shut-Eye train! Through the blue where bloom the stars And the Mother Moon looks down We’ll away To land of Fay— Oh, the sights that we shall see there! Come, my little one, with me there— ’Tis a goodly train of cars— All aboard for Shut-Eye Town!
Swifter than a wild bird’s flight, Through the realms of fleecy light We shall speed and speed away! Let the Night in envy frown— What care we How wroth she be! To the Balow-land above us, To the Balow-folk who love us, Let us hasten while we may— All aboard for Shut-Eye Town!
Shut-Eye Town is passing fair— Golden dreams await us there; We shall dream those dreams, my dear, Till the Mother Moon goes down— See unfold Delights untold! And in those mysterious places We shall see beloved faces And beloved voices hear In the grace of Shut-Eye Town.
Heavy are your eyes, my sweet, Weary are your little feet— Nestle closer up to me In your pretty cap and gown; Don’t detain The Shut-Eye train! “Ting-a-ling!” the bell it goeth, “Toot-toot!” the whistle bloweth, Oh, the sights that we shall see! All aboard for Shut-Eye Town!