Lyr Req: A Borrowed Child

Subject: Lyr Req: A Borrowed Child
From: Pilgrim
Date: 13 Jun 07 - 08:17 AM

Not really lyrics, but here goes anyway. I have the responsibility of reading at my friends daughters funeral next week. She was with us for three months. There is a poem which would be appropriate, with a title such as "A borrowed child" or some such. It is not the Howard Weedon one that Google produces. Hoping you guys can help me as much as you have done in the past.

Thanks in advance.

Pilgrim

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Borrowed Child
From: Celtaddict
Date: 13 Jun 07 - 08:57 PM

Might this be the one MMario sings? Possibly that poem set to music? I believe the one he sings is called 'Song for a Borrowed Child.'   You might try to PM MMario.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Borrowed Child
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 13 Jun 07 - 11:12 PM

There are remarkably few songs for this tragic situation...maybe All through the night...mg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Borrowed Child
From: MMario
Date: 14 Jun 07 - 08:07 AM

I'm not sure "Lullaby for a borrowed Child" would be appropriate - - though if any of the lyric is usable I certainly have no objection.

I seem to recall a poem such as Pilgrim mentioned - about a young child who died - remembering the joy the child gave even though tragically short. But I can't find it either.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Borrowed Child
From: MartinRyan
Date: 14 Jun 07 - 08:28 AM

Yeat's "Stolen Child", perhaps. Loreen McKennitt (sp?) arranged a nice sung version of it.,

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Borrowed Child
From: MMario
Date: 14 Jun 07 - 08:35 AM

http://www.web-books.com/classics/Poetry/anthology/Yeats/Stolen.htm

a possibility - I'm sure. I heard a lovely rendition of this at Hudson Valley Mayfaire.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Borrowed Child
From: MartinRyan
Date: 14 Jun 07 - 08:38 AM

Sorry about the grocer's apostrophe! Yeats shoots and leaves....

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Borrowed Child
From: GUEST,Tracy
Date: 14 Jun 07 - 09:22 AM

Have you ever heard "Precious Child"?

http://www.compassionatefriends.org/precious_child.htm

My heart goes out to your friends, and all touched by this loss.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Borrowed Child
From: GUEST,Tracy
Date: 14 Jun 07 - 09:34 AM

Here's some more ideas.

http://www.misschildren.org/cherish/songs.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Borrowed Child
From: Celtaddict
Date: 14 Jun 07 - 09:40 AM

Eric Bogle wrote a song in memory of a little girl lost to SIDS (crib death) called 'Elizabeth's Song' which is on the album "The Colour of Dreams."
The lyrics are on his website http://ericbogle.net/lyrics/lyricspdf/elizabethsong.pdf
Sorry, no luck making a blicky and I do not know why the effort added those three squares.
There was also a thread in 2003 about writing about other people's private lives that had a poem and a song lyric, and some interesting ideas as well.

blicky linkified - link-faery

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Borrowed Child
From: Pilgrim
Date: 14 Jun 07 - 09:44 AM

You are all too kind. Am following up the threads as I type. Also trying to hold it together in the office whilst reading your thoughtful words. Blaming it on hayfever seems to work. Thanks again.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Borrowed Child
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 14 Jun 07 - 01:15 PM

The one about the lost child..I found the home of the mountain bear etc...could possibly work. It is very sad of course...mg

Subject: Lyr Add: GOD'S LENT CHILD
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Aug 10 - 09:57 PM

GOD'S LENT CHILD

"I'll lend you for a little while a child of mine," God said,
"For you to love the while she lives, and mourn for when she's dead.
It may be six or seven years, or forty-two or three;
But will you, till I call her back, Take care of her for me?

"She'll bring her charms to gladden you, and should her stay be brief,
You'll have her lovely memories as a solace for your grief.
I cannot promise she will stay, since all from Earth return;
But there are lessons taught below that I want my children to learn.

"I've looked the whole world over, in my search for teachers true;
And from the things that crowd life's lane, I have chosen you.
Now will you give her all your love? Nor think the labor vain?
Nor hate me when I come to take this lent child back again? "

I fancied that I heard them say, "Dear Lord, Thy will be done.
For all the joys Thy child will bring, the risk of grief we'll run.
We will shelter her with tenderness, we'll love her while we may,
And for the happiness we've known, forever grateful stay;
But should Thy angels call for her much sooner than we'd planned,
We'll brave the bitter grief that comes and try to understand.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Borrowed Child
From: GUEST,Wileybill
Date: 10 Jun 11 - 12:37 AM

I have been trying to find the same song - I think. It was a very old country song about a man at his little sons grave, he spoke of how he cherished the time he had and thanked the lord, for letting him borrow him - the idea was we are all the lords children.
I thought for sure it was Jimmy Dean but can not find it.
I'm still searching

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BORROWED CHILD (Howard Weeden)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 11:36 PM

I know this isn't the one that was wanted, but it's interesting nonetheless, and I think it's worth having at Mudcat. From Shadows on the Wall by Howard Weeden (New York: M. Stolz & Company, 1898), page 32:


THE BORROWED CHILD.
Howard Weeden

My chile? Lord, no, she's none o' mine,
She's des one I had tried
To put in place of Anna Jane—
My little one what died.

Dat's long ago; no one but me
Knows even whar she lies:
But in her place I've always kept
A borrowed chile, her size.

As soon as it outgrows my chile,
I lets it go right straight—
An' takes another in its place
To match dat Heabenly mate.

It's took a sight o' chillun, sho',
To ease dat dull ol' pain,
An' keep de pretty likeness fresh
Of my dead Anna Jane.

Der's more den forty years, you see,
Since she has been in Heaben,
But wid de angels years don't count—
So she's still only seben.

Time treats 'em all up dere, des lak
It do white ladies here—
It teches 'em so light—one's still
A gal, at forty year!