Poetry Friday: And You Don't Know It

The illustration to the left, titled "Mr. Peter Piper sees a shark," comes from a well-known American poet. Indeed, this artist was without doubt the most popular American poet of the late 1800s, when people quoted verse to express their emotions the way we now crank up popular songs.

This little drawing comes from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, author of "Paul Revere's Ride," "The Children's Hour," Hiawatha, Evangeline, and much more. He drew Mr. Piper and his fishy friend in a tale he wrote for his children (he had six, five of whom lived to adulthood). The Houghton Library at Harvard University, which owns former professor Longfellow's papers, opened a display on his life and work this month. Its online component consists of these drawings and similar ones about "Mr. Peter Quince," who has trouble with a balloon.

Longfellow was born on 27 Feb 1807, so this year is his bicentennial, with various events planned around the country. He wrote for a wide audience, but his work has come to be associated with children, for a number of reasons:

• In the late 1800s and early 1900s thousands of American children were taught to memorize long stretches of Longfellow poetry. (Sens. Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd can still recite all of "Paul Revere's Ride.")
• Rhyming, metrical verse was deemed old-fashioned by modernist poets, but still dominates in children's literature, for good reasons.
• Some of Longfellow's shorter poems have been illustrated and published for children in fine picture-book editions.

But in his lifetime, Longfellow was the poet for everyone.

Indeed, Longfellow was such a dominant literary voice that he coined several phrases that seem to have come down to us from the heavens: "Ships that pass in the night"; "Into each life some rain must fall"; "All things come round to him who will but wait"; "Peace on earth, good will to men." Yes, somebody actually wrote those.

Another little item Longfellow created for his children, specifically for daughter Edith after a bad hair day, was:

There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,

Right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good,
She was very good indeed,

But when she was bad she was horrid.

Longfellow never meant this to leave the household, but after it got into print he admitted to writing it. Using a parental metaphor, he lamented how juvenile verses "cling to one's skirt with a terrible grasp."