Poetry Friday: Animal Crackers

Z-baby is memorizing this old chestnut by Christopher Morley for her first poem of the new school year:

Animal crackers and cocoa to drink,
That is the finest of suppers I think;
When I’m grown up and can have what I please
I think I shall always insist upon these.
What do YOU choose when you’re offered a treat?
When Mother says, “What would you like best to eat?”
Is it waffles and syrup, or cinnamon toast?
It’s cocoa and animals that I love most!

The kitchen’s the cosiest place that I know;
The kettle is singing, the stove is aglow,
And there in the twilight, how jolly to see
The cocoa and animals waiting for me.

Daddy and Mother dine later in state,
With Mary to cook for them, Susan to wait;
But they don’t have nearly as much fun as I
Who eat in the kitchen with Nurse standing by;
And Daddy once said, he would like to be me
Having cocoa and animals once more for tea!

Christopher Morley (1890-1957)

I had in my mind that this one was a Robert Louis Stevenson poem; it rather sounds like something of his. However, Mr. Morley was an American poet and writer, “one of the founders and long-time contributing editor of the Saturday Review of Literature” and also founder of the Baker Street Irregulars, the American Sherlock Holmes fan club. FDR and Harry Truman were both members of the BSI. Christopher Morley wrote two bookshop novels, Parnassus on Wheels(reviewed at Kate’s Book Blog) and The Haunted Bookshop. I’ve read the latter, but not the former, and I found it a bit Chestertonian, somewhat obscure at times but fun to read nevertheless.

3 thoughts on “Poetry Friday: Animal Crackers

  1. I don’t think I have ever read this. I love the sound and feel of it and the cozy image it produces. It does sound like Stevenson.

  2. You should try Parnassus! It’s a bit lighter and more comical than The Haunted Bookshop, but still filled wtih book-loving goodness. 🙂

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