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Vespers

Vespers was written by the British author Alan Alexander Milne (1882-1956) and features his son Christopher Robin. Christopher Robin is most well-known as the little boy in Winnie-the-Pooh which Milne published in 1926.

Design for the cover to The Christopher Robin Story Book, E. H. Shepard,  about 1928. Museum No. E.723-1973

Design for the cover to The Christopher Robin Story Book, E. H. Shepard, about 1928. Museum No. E.723-1973 (click image for larger version)

'Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,
Droops on the little hands little gold head.
Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.

God bless Mummy. I know that's right.
Wasn't it fun in the bath tonight?
The cold's so cold, and the hot's so hot.
Oh! God bless Daddy - I quite forgot.

If I open my fingers a little bit more,
I can see Nanny's dressing-gown on the door.
It's a beautiful blue, but it hasn't a hood.
Oh! God bless Nanny and make her good.

Mine has a hood, and I lie in bed,
And pull the hood right over my head,
And I shut my eyes, and I curl up small,
And nobody knows that I'm there at all.

Oh! Thank you, God, for a lovely day.
And what was the other I had to say?
I said "Bless Daddy," so what can it be?
Oh! Now I remember it. God bless Me.

Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,
Droops on the little hands little gold head.
Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.'