The Song of Education: III. For The Creche - G K Chesterton

III. For the Creche

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 in somebody’s bank;

And I feel satisfaction that mother is free

From the sinister task of attending to me.

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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.

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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 will soon 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;

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

For Progress comes early, and Freedom too soon.”