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Poems of childhood

Chapter 84: SHUFFLE-SHOON AND AMBER-LOCKS

By Eugene Field

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Children & Young Adult Reading Poetry

About This Book

A collection of short lyrical poems written for and about children, blending playful nonsense, gentle lullabies, and nostalgic reminiscence. Many pieces evoke bedtime and nursery scenes, give voice to toys and animals, or imagine voyages and fairylike adventures, mixing humor with a tender melancholy. Several poems adapt or echo folk-song material, while others are brief narrative or character sketches that vary in meter and mood. Overall the verses create an intimate domestic atmosphere, inviting readers into childlike wonder through simple rhythms, vivid small-scale imagery, and affectionate observation.

SHUFFLE-SHOON AND AMBER-LOCKS

Shuffle-Shoon and Amber-Locks

Sit together, building blocks;

Shuffle-Shoon is old and gray,

Amber-Locks a little child,

But together at their play

Age and Youth are reconciled,

And with sympathetic glee

Build their castles fair to see.

“When I grow to be a man”

(So the wee one’s prattle ran),

“I shall build a castle so—

With a gateway broad and grand;

Here a pretty vine shall grow,

There a soldier guard shall stand;

And the tower shall be so high,

Folks will wonder, by and by!”

Shuffle-Shoon quoth: “Yes, I know;

Thus I builded long ago!

Here a gate and there a wall,

Here a window, there a door;

Here a steeple wondrous tall

Riseth ever more and more!

But the years have levelled low

What I builded long ago!”

So they gossip at their play,

Heedless of the fleeting day;

One speaks of the Long Ago

Where his dead hopes buried lie;

One with chubby cheeks aglow

Prattleth of the By and By;

Side by side, they build their blocks—

Shuffle-Shoon and Amber-Locks.

Shuffle-shoon and Amber-locks