The Bird/Dame Hickory [DE LA MARE poems set to music]
Channel: tobydarling
Date: 2019-10-05

The Bird (Walter de la Mare)

Em G
As poor old Biddie
Am Em
Sat by the hearth,
C G
Chilled to the bone
Em F
By the cold in the earth
C G
Under the eaves - 
D Am
Biddie nodding and napping - 
C G
Came a beak at the casement,
Bm C
Tap- tapping - and tapping:
Dark creeping in,
The fields all thick
With hoar-frost - still tapping
That restless beak.
But Biddie, as deaf
As a post drowsed on:
And at last in the starlight
The tapping was gone.
C Em
Three mortal days
G Am
Lagged wintrily through,
C D
But at midnight on Thursday
Em
Gone was old Biddie too.




Dame Hickory

Em     
'Dame Hickory, Dame Hickory,
Em
     Here's sticks for your fire,
Em
     Furze-twigs, and oak-twigs,
F Am
     And beech-twigs, and briar!'
Dm C G
     But when old Dame Hickory came for to see,
Dm C A7
     She found 'twas the voice of the false faerie.

Dm   
  'Dame Hickory, Dame Hickory,
 C G
     Here's meat for your broth,
Am Em
     Goose-flesh, and hare's flesh,
F
     And pig's trotters both!'
C G Am D
     But when old Dame Hickory came for to see,
Am G Am
     She found 'twas the voice of the false faerie.

     'Dame Hickory, Dame Hickory,
     Here's a wolf at your door,
     His teeth grinning white,
     And his tongue wagging sore!'
     'Nay!' said Dame Hickory, 'ye false faerie!'
     But a wolf 'twas indeed, and famished was he.

     'Dame Hickory, Dame Hickory,
     Here's buds for your tomb,
     Bramble, and lavender,
     And rosemary bloom!'
     'Whsst!' sighs Dame Hickory, 'ye false faerie,
     Ye cry like a wolf, ye do, and trouble poor me.'


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