Whatever age you are, you’ve probably heard the classic children’s song “Puff the Magic Dragon,” and even just reading the lyrics, you probably remember the first line, “Puff the Magic Dragon, lived by the sea…” I bet you can’t get it out of your head now, can you? I can’t. Most of us alive today have heard this song, whether as children or when we grew up and had our own children. Some people with super good memories can probably even sing the entire song by memory. Well, this may surprise some fans, but this classic children’s song was written in 1963 and here’s something else: it wasn’t written specifically as a children’s song.
“Puff the Magic Dragon” has been around in our homes and on our radios for more than 50 years now and many people still don’t know the truth behind the beautiful lyrics of this classic song. If you know why it was written and know some key facts about the songs, it makes it even more special to you, and the meaning takes on something totally new. Written by Peter Yarrow and Leonard Lipton, this song was recorded and performed by the folk musicians Peter, Paul, and Mary. Interestingly, the song is based on a poem that Lipton wrote in 1959 when he was in college. When Yarrow was getting ready to release the song, he searched for Lipton so that he could give him half of the credit for the song.
Lipton actually wrote the poem one day when he couldn’t get the lyrics out of his head. He was living in a house with Yarrow and some other people at Cornell University and Lipton used Yarrow’s old typewriter to type out the song’s lyrics. After typing it, he left the paper int he typewriter. But what do the lyrics mean? For many people, the lyrics represent that special time in our lives when we’re young and innocent and grow up to become jaded and aware. When we were children, our imaginations played a significant role in our lives and perhaps we even fantasized about escaping to a land called Honnahlee with magical dragons and other creatures.
At the time of its release, some people theorized that “Puff the Magic Dragon” was about smoking marijuana. Both Yarrow and Lipton have repeatedly denied that. Yarrow said the song is about the process of growing older and encountering the reality and hardships that come with that. In other words, it’s about the loss of innocence, which is a bittersweet thing. In the video below, you can watch Peter, Paul, and Mary sing this special song and transport yourself back to the time of your own innocence.
