The Dream Coach was named a Newbery Honor Book. Anne Parrish's original stories of dream adventures hold fairy-tale charm that is sure to delight young children, perfect for bedtime reading one chapter at a time. Her tales capture the surreal silliness and strangeness of the dream state and the way our minds slip into that realm without our awareness. There are a couple of phrases early on that betray the cultural insensitivity that used to be acceptable in children's literature in the U.S.
By : Anne Parrish (1888 - 1957)
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If you have been unhappy all the day,
Wait patiently until the night:
When in the sky the gentle stars are bright
The Dream Coach comes to carry you away.
Great Coach, great Coach, how fat and bright your sides,
To please the child who rides!
Painted with funny men – see that one's hose,
How blue! How red and long is that one's nose!
And under this one's arm a flapping cock!
Great dandelions tell us what o'clock
With silver globe much bigger than the moon —
Dream Coach, come soon! Come soon!
What pretty pictures! Angels at their play,
And brown and lilac butterflies, and spray
Of stars, and animals from far away,
Grey elephants, a bright pink water bird;
Things lovely and absurd.
As the wheels turn, they wake to lovely sound,
Musical boxes – as the wheels go round
They play a little silver spray of notes:
"Swift Runs the River" – "Bluebells in the Wood" —
"The Waterfall" – "The Child Who Has Been Good" —
Like splash of foam at keel of little boats.
Under a sky of duck-egg green
Have you not seen
The hundred misty horses that delight
To draw the coach all night,
And the queer little Driver sitting high
And singing to the sky?
His hat is as tall as a cypress tree,
His hair is as white as snow;
His cheeks and his nose are as red as can be;
He sings: "Come along! Come along with me!"
Let us go! Let us go!
His coat is speckledy red and black,
His boots are as green as a beetle's back,
His beard has a fringe of silver bells
And scarlet berries and small white shells,
And as through the night the Dream Coach gleams,
The song he sings like a banner streams:
"Nothing is real in all the world,
Nothing is real but dreams."
Through sound of rain the Dream Coach gallops fast.
All those that we have loved are riding there:
I hear their laughter on the misty air.
I wait for you – I have been waiting long:
Far off I hear the Driver's tiny song –
Oh, Dream Coach! Come at last!
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