David Rands has kindly shared with readers of the Victorian Web his site about the life and works of W. B. Rands, the prolific writer of children's literature and originator of The Boy's Own Paper. Readers may wish to consult this site for more information about this little-known figure who had an immense influence upon Victorian children. [GPL]
I saw a new world in my dream,
Where all the folks alike did seem;
There was no Child, there was no Mother,
There was no Change, there was no Other,
For everything was Same, the Same;
There was no Praise there was no Blame;
There was neither Need nor Help for it;
There was nothing fitting or unfit.
Nobody laughed, nobody wept;
None grew weary and so none slept;
There was nobody born, and nobody wed;
This world was a world of the living dead.
I longed to hear the time-clock strike
In the world where the people were all alike;
I hated Same, I hated Forever,
I longed to say Neither, or even Never.
I longed to mend, I longed to make
I longed to give, I longed to take,
I longed for a change, whatever came after,
I longed for crying, I longed for laughter.
At last I heard the time-clock boom,
And woke from my dream in my little room;
With a smile on her lips my mother was nigh,
And I heard the baby crow and cry.
And I thought to myself — How nice it is
For me to live in a world like this,
Where things can happen, and clocks can strike,
And none of the people are made alike;
Where Love wants this and Pain wants that,
And all our hearts want Tit for Tat
In the jumbles we make with our heads and our hands,
In a world that nobody understands,
But with work and hope and the right to call
Upon Him who sees it and knows us all.
Last modified 21 August 2005