A source for Molly Drake

Reading A.A. Milne’s Now We Are Six (1927) with a granddaughter, I found what seems to be the source for the shape of Molly Drake’s heartbreaking song “I Remember.” It’s the first stanza of Milne’s poem “Forgiven”:

I found a little beetle, so that Beetle was his name,
And I called him Alexander and he answered just
    the same.
I put him in a match-box, and I kept him all the
    day....
And Nanny let my beetle out—
        Yes, Nanny let my beetle out—
            She went and let my beetle out—
                And Beetle ran away.

Now listen to “I Remember.”

Molly Drake (1915–1993) made her home recordings in the 1950s. I would imagine that at some point she was reading Milne to one or both of her children, Gabrielle (b. 1944) and Nick (1948–1974).

Related reading
"The music of Molly Drake, mother of Nick Drake, is finally having its moment” (NPR Illinois) : A New York Times obituary (From the Overlooked No More series)