Little girl lost1
In a forest of dreams
It’s a dark old wood
And it’s damp with dew
Hoot owl hoots
For a moment it seems
Something big and cold
Just got ahold of you.
Just when everything gets scary,
Daddy’s come ’round for his darlin’ again
Hold my hand with your little fingers
Daddy’s loving arms gonna gather you in
Ain’t no way the Bogeyman can get you,2
You can close your eyes, the world is gonna let you,
Your daddy’s here and never will forget you,
I will take you home3
I will take you home
Gonna carry you back home
In my arms
I will take you home
Long is the road
We must travel on down
Short are the legs
That will struggle behind
I wish I knew for sure
Just where we’re bound,
What we will be doin’
And what we’re gonna find
Wherever we go, there will be birds to cheer you
Flowers to color in the fields around
Wherever we go, I’ll be right here near you
You can’t get lost when you’re always found
Ain’t no fog that’s thick enough to hide you
Your daddy’s gonna be right here beside you
If your fears should start to get inside you
I will take you home
I will take you home
Gonna carry you back home
In my arms
I will take you home
Words by John Barlow and Brent Mydland
Music by Brent Mydland
The title of a poem by William Blake (1757–1827), in his Songs of Experience:
In futurity
I prophetic see
That the earth from sleep
(Grave the sentence deep)
Shall arise and seek
For her maker meek;
And the desart wild
Become a garden mild.
In the southern clime,
Where the summer’s prime
Never fades away,
Lovely Lyca lay.
Seven summers old
Lovely Lyca told,
She had wander’d long
Hearing wild birds’ song.
“Sweet sleep come to me
Underneath this tree.
Do father, mother weep,
Where can Lyca sleep?
“Lost in desart wild
Is your little child.
How can Lyca sleep
If her mother weep.
“If her heart does ake
Then let Lyca wake;
If my mother sleep,
Lyca shall not weep.
Frowning frowning night,
Let thy moon arise,
While I close my eyes.
Sleeping Lyca lay;
While the beasts of prey,
Come from caverns deep,
View’d the maid asleep
The kingly lion stood
And the virgin view’d,
Then he gambold round
O’er the hallowd ground.
Leopards, tygers play
Round her as she lay;
While the lion old,
Bow’d his mane of gold.
And her bosom lick,
And upon her neck,
From his eyes of flame,
Ruby tears there came;
While the lioness,
Loos’d her slender dress,
And naked they convey’d
To caves the sleeping maid.
Also the title of a 1932 novel by Temple Bailey. According to The Book Review Digest of that year:
Sentimental love story about a young girl of 19 who takes a year to make up her mind just which man she wants to marry—the fascinator who doesn’t really believe in marriage, and hasn’t a nickel, or the fine-looking young man who wants terribly to marry her, and is incidentally worth several millions. She arrives at her momentous decision after a number of adventures, and promises to marry the nice young man with the millions.
Other excerpts from reviews indicate that Temple Bailey was the Danielle Steel of her time.
The title has since been used repeatedly, including recently by Drew Barrymore for her 1990 autobiographical account of drug abuse.
boogerman n. Also sp. boogarman, buggerman 1 also boog man: (Note: boogeyman is the more frequently used term throughout the U.S. except in the South, where it is slightly less common than boogerman. A spirit of the dark that carries off children (Dictionary of American Regional English)
This is one of those words whose etymology is, perhaps appropriately, very murky.
Compare the line from “Ripple”: “If I knew the way, I would take you home.”
Written in Martinez, California, February 23, 1988.
Studio recording: Built to Last (October 31, 1989).
First performance: June 22, 1988, at Alpine Valley Music Theater, East Troy, Wisconsin.