The Song

Puff the Magic Dragon lived by the sea and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee
Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff and brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff

Oh, Puff the Magic Dragon lived by the sea and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee
Puff the Magic Dragon lived by the sea and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee

Together they would travel on a boat with billowed sail, Jackie kept a look out perched on Puff’s gigantic tail.
Noble Kings and princes would bow whene’er they came, pirate ships would lower their flag when Puff roared out his name.

Oh, Puff the Magic Dragon lived by the sea and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee
Puff the Magic Dragon lived by the sea and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee

A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys. Painted wings and giant’s rings make way for other toys.
One grey night it happened Jackie Paper came no more and Puff that Mighty Dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.

His head was bent in sorror, green scales fell like rain, Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane.
Without his life-long friend, Puff could not be brave so Puff that Mighty Dragon silently slipped into his cave.

Oh, Puff the Magic Dragon lived by the sea and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee
Puff the Magic Dragon lived by the sea and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee

The Story of the Song

Puff the Magic Dragon is based on a poem written in 1959 by 19 year old college student Lenny Lipton. While on his way to his friend’s house for dinner, Lenny became very introspective about the journey he was taking now and the loss of his childhood and innocence. Reflecting on a poem he had read by Ogden Nash, his mind began to write. When he arrived, he found no one there. He sat down to wait, and wrote a poem of his own which he left in his friend’s room-mate’s typewriter. The room-mate was Peter, later to be of Peter, Paul, and Mary. Years later when they recorded this “poem” it became a hit. Peter Yarrow then tracked down Lenny Lipton and gave him credit on the song as a co-writer.

From Me

I suppose I don’t really have much to say or any explanation for myself, I just really love this song and it makes me cry so I thought I’d write you all and remind you of the song. It makes me all sniffly ’cause the magic and wonder of childhood is one of the most important things to me… the ability to see the sparkle… the knowledge that faeries *do* exist, the laugh when you watch things that aren’t there do summersaults…

The magic and wonder of the child in a person is such an integral part of their being… to lose that, or to forget it’s there and hide it deep inside… is a greater catastrophe than any of the trivialities that bother us in every day life could ever be. How can you laugh without it? How do you deal with the cruel harsh world without it? How can you be a complete person without a very messy, very alive child jumping up and down on the bed in the back of your head and hitting you with pillows? Without the ability to close your eyes and grab a pillow, hop up on that bed that has no edges, and beat the blue marshmallow monster with a pillow until you’re both on the floor with stitches in your side and tears in your eyes from laughing so hard – where would you be? Have you played with the faeries lately? Eaten jello until it was in your hair… made mudpies with the little people deep in the bush… rolled down endless hilly clouds until you couldn’t breath from all the laughs… if you haven’t done that lately, then take a moment, even if it’s just a moment, to close your eyes and have a pillow fight… make mudpies… maybe fly with your dragon… whatever you need to do to remind yourself and to revisit the child that is you…

This entry was posted on Monday, October 1st, 2001 at 3:02 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.