StoryTitle("caps", "Big Smith") ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PagePoem(81, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Are you a Giant, great big man, or is your real name Smith?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Nurse says—you 've got a hammer that you hit bad children with.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I'm good to-day, and so I 've come to see if it is true", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That you can turn a red-hot rod into a horse's shoe.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Why do you make the horses' shoes of iron instead of leather?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Is it because they are allowed to go out in bad weather?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "If horses should be shod with iron, Big Smith, will you shoe mine?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For now I may not take him out, excepting when it's fine.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Although he 's not a real live horse, I 'm very fond of him;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "His harness won't take off and on, but still it's new and trim.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "His tail is hair; he has four legs, but neither hoofs nor heels", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I think he'd seem more like a horse without those yellow wheels.", "") ?>
PagePoem(83, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They say that Dapple-gray's not yours, but don't you wish he were ?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "My horse's coat is only paint, but his is soft gray hair;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "His face is big and kind like yours, his forelock white as snow—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shan't you be sorry when you 've done his shoes and he must go?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I do so wish, Big Smith, that I might come and live with you—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To rake the fire, to heat the rods, to hammer two and two.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To be so black, and not to have to wash unless I choose;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To pat the dear old horses, and to mend their poor old shoes.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When all the world is dark at night, you work among the stars,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A shining shower of fireworks beat out of red-hot bars.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I've seen you beat, I 've heard you sing, when I was going to bed ;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And now your face and arms looked black, and now were glowing red.", "") ?>
PagePoem(84, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The more you work, the more you sing, the more the bellows roar;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The falling stars, the flying sparks stream shining more and more.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "You hit so hard, you look so hot, and yet you never tire ;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It must be very nice to be allowed to play with fire.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I long to beat and sing and shine, as you do, but instead ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I put away my horse, and Nurse puts me away to bed. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I wonder if you go to bed; I often think I'll keep ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Awake and see, but, though I try, I always fall asleep. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I know it's very silly, but I sometimes am afraid", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of being in the dark alone, especially in bed,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But when I see your forge-light come and go upon the wall,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And hear you through the window, I am not afraid at all.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I often hear a trotting horse, I sometimes hear it stop;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I hold my breath—you stay your song—it 's at the blacksmith's shop.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Before it goes, I'm apt to fall asleep, Big Smith, it's true ;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But then I dream of hammering that horse's shoes with you!", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("85", SmallCapsText("—Juliana Horatia Ewing.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
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