Time for a poem: Seal Lullaby

July 22, 2013July 21, 2013 Alphabet Soup

Seal Lullaby by Rudyard Kipling

Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us
And black are the waters that sparkled so green.
The moon, o’er the combers, looks downward to find us
At rest in the hollows that rustle between.

—
Where billow meets billow, there soft be thy pillow.
Oh, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease!
The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee
Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas.

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We’re sharing this poem as part of the Soup Blog Poetry Festival — until the end of August we’ll be posting poems, interviews with children’s poets, tips for reading and writing poetry, and Poetry Prescriptions (poetry is good for the soul!).

Published by Alphabet Soup

This post was added by Rebecca Newman. Rebecca is a children's writer and poet, and the editor of the Australian children's literary blog, Alphabet Soup. For more about Rebecca visit: rebeccanewman.net.au. View all posts by Alphabet Soup

5 thoughts on “Time for a poem: Seal Lullaby”

triciasimmons says:

July 22, 2013 at 6:02 am

Lovely poem – definitely good for the soul!
1. soupblog says:
  
  July 22, 2013 at 9:25 am
  
  It is lovely, isn’t it? And I do love the idea of Mama seals singing lullabies to their babies. 🙂
  ~Rebecca
Lorraine Marwood says:

July 22, 2013 at 8:23 am

Amazing, I’ve never read this one before- thanks for sharing.
1. soupblog says:
  
  July 22, 2013 at 9:28 am
  
  I love old lullabies and this one always makes me smile. ‘Oh, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease!’ is such a gorgeous line …
Nadine Cranenburgh says:

July 22, 2013 at 3:16 pm

Thanks Rebecca, I love Rudyard Kipling. That’s from The Jungle Book isn’t it? I’ll have to pull the book out and share it with my kids. In the forward to my edition I read that Kipling wrote The Jungle Book to be serialised in a magazine for an editor who questioned whether he was qualified to write for children. He certainly showed her!