Hapless, hapless, I must be All the hours of life I see, Since my foolish nurse did once Bed me on her leggen bones; Since my mother did not weel To snip my nails with blades of steel. Had they laid me on a pillow In a cot of water willow, Had they bitten finger and thumb, Not to such ill hap I had come.
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Confirmed with Peacock Pie. A Book of Rhymes by Walter de la Mare, London: Constable & Co. Ltd., [1920], p. 25.
Authorship:
- by Walter De la Mare (1873 - 1956), "Hapless", appears in Peacock Pie: A Book of Rhymes, in 1. Up and Down, no. 13, first published 1913 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
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Researcher for this page: Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2014-02-25
Line count: 10
Word count: 65