I AM the Toy-maker; I have brought from the town <br />As much in my plack as should fetch a whole crown, <br />I'll array for you now my stock of renown <br />And man's the raree will show you. <br /> <br />Here's a horse that is rearing to bound through the smoke <br />Of cannon and musket, and, face to that ruck, <br />The horseman with sword ready-held for the stroke, <br />Lord Lucan, maybe, or Prince Charlie. <br /> <br />An old woman sitting and waiting for call, <br />With her baskets of cockles and apples and all; <br />A one-legged sailor attending a ball, <br />And a tailor and nailer busy. <br /> <br />Or would you have these? A goose ganging by, <br />With head up in challenge to all who come nigh; <br />A cock with a comb dangling over his eye, <br />And a hen on a clutch nicely sitting; <br /> <br />Or a duck that is chasing a quick thing around, <br />Or a crow that is taking three hops on the ground, <br />Or an ass with head down (he is held in a pound); <br />Or a fox with his tail curled around him? <br /> <br />A ship made of shells that have sheen of the sea, <br />All ready to sail for black Barbarie, <br />The Lowlands of Holland, or High Germanic <br />And who'll be the one that will steer her? <br /> <br />I'll speak of my trade: there's a day beyond day <br />When the hound needn't hunt and the priest needn't pray, <br />And the clerk needn't write, and the hen needn't lay, <br />Whence come all the things that I show you. <br /> <br />I am the Toy-maker; upon the town wall <br />My crib is high up; I have down-look on all, <br />And coach and wheelbarrow I carve in my stall, <br />Making things with no troubles in them.<br /><br />Padraic Colum<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-toy-maker-2/
