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Love-Songs of Childhood

Chapter 43: OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY
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About This Book

A collection of short, lyrical poems and lullabies that celebrate early childhood through tender domestic scenes, playful toys, animals, and fanciful dreams. The verses move between gentle rocking-room songs and lively comic sketches, employing simple rhythms, repeated refrains, and vivid sensory images to evoke bedtime comfort, parental affection, small adventures, and imaginative flights. Tone shifts from soothing and sentimental to mischievous and humorous, aiming to charm both children and adults with memorable melodies and warm nostalgia for the ordinary rituals of youth.





OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY

      Over the hills and far away,
      A little boy steals from his morning play
      And under the blossoming apple-tree
      He lies and he dreams of the things to be:
      Of battles fought and of victories won,
      Of wrongs o'erthrown and of great deeds done—
      Of the valor that he shall prove some day,
      Over the hills and far away—
      Over the hills, and far away!

      Over the hills and far away
      It's, oh, for the toil the livelong day!
      But it mattereth not to the soul aflame
      With a love for riches and power and fame!
      On, O man! while the sun is high—
      On to the certain joys that lie
      Yonder where blazeth the noon of day,
      Over the hills and far away—
      Over the hills, and far away!

      Over the hills and far away,
      An old man lingers at close of day;
      Now that his journey is almost done,
      His battles fought and his victories won—
      The old-time honesty and truth,
      The trustfulness and the friends of youth,
      Home and mother-where are they?
      Over the hills and far away—
      Over the years, and far away!