Gael Stuart

The Silver Sage

Are you ready? Come on along and read some homespun poetry as well as a jot and tittle regarding distinguished poets and their works. Gael offers a positive balance of her own nostalgia notes and poetic meanderings with those of others. [Editor's note: Gael no longer contributes to Silver Planet, but we have made her archived blog entries available as a service to our readers.]


Posted 07/31/2008

The Children's Poet

By Gael Stuart

Are you familiar with “the Children’s Poet”?

Eugene Field (1850–1895) was an American poet born in St. Louis. When he was five, his mother died and he was sent to live with his cousin Mary in Massachusetts. He grew up there and attended several colleges before dropping out of school. He eventually returned to college at the University of Missouri, where his brother attended, but studying was not his forte. He married his childhood sweetheart when she turned 16, and they produced eight children. He loved children and was an unusual poet in that he wrote only children’s poetry.

Who hasn’t heard (or memorized) “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod”? When you are a child, you can easily imagine sailing off in a wooden shoe upon a crystal river. As a little girl, I loved to hear that fantasy bedtime story and picture the silver net and the silver stars. One night my father delighted me by sticking glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling in honor of that poem! I wonder if others had stars on their ceiling when they were growing up.

What was your favorite childhood poem?

The Old Moon from Wynken, Blynken, and NodWynken, Blynken, and Nod
Eugene Field

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, one night sailed off in a wooden shoe;
Sailed off on a river of crystal light into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going and what do you wish?" the old moon asked the three.
"We've come to fish for the herring fish that live in this beautiful sea.
Nets of silver and gold have we," said Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.

The old moon laughed and sang a song as they rocked in the wooden shoe.
And the wind that sped them all night long ruffled the waves of dew.
Now the little stars are the herring fish that live in that beautiful sea;
"Cast your nets wherever you wish never afraid are we!"
So cried the stars to the fishermen three – Wynken, and Blynken, and Nod.

So all night long their nets they threw to the stars in the twinkling foam.
'Til down from the skies came the wooden shoe bringing the fisherman home.
'Twas all so pretty a sail it seemed as if it could not be.
Some folks say 'twas a dream they dreamed of sailing that misty sea.
But I shall name you the fisherman three – Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.

Now Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes and Nod is a little head.
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies is a wee one's trundle bed.
So close your eyes while mother sings of the wonderful sights that be.
And you shall see those beautiful things as you sail on the misty sea,
Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three – Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.

By Gael Stuart
The Silver Sage Blog

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