Mother Goose for Grown Folks

A. D. T. Whitney

Mother Goose for Grown Folks

INTRODUCTORY

Somewhere in that uncertain "long ago,"Whose dim and vague chronology is allThat elfin tales or nursery fables know,Rose a rare spirit,—keen, and quick, and quaint,—Whom by the title, whether fact or feint,Mythic or real, Mother Goose we call.Of Momus and Minerva sprang the birthThat gave the laughing oracle to earth:A brimming bowl she bears, that, frothinghighWith sparkling nonsense, seemeth non-sense all;Till, the bright, floating syllabub blown by,Lo, in its ruby splendor doth upshineThe crimson radiance of Olympian wineBy Pallas poured, in Jove's own banquet-hall.The world was but a baby when she came;So to her songs it listened, and her nameGrew to a word of power, her voice a spellWith charm to soothe its infant wearyingwell.But, in a later and maturer age,Developed to a dignity more sage,Having its Shakspeares and its Words-worths now,Its Southeys and its Tennysons, to wearA halo on the high and lordly brow,Or poet-laurels in the waving hair;Its Lowells, Whittiers, Longfellows, to singBallads of beauty, like the notes of spring,The wise and prudent ones to nursery useLeave the dear lyrics of old Mother Goose.Wisdom of babes,—the nursery Shak-speare stilly—Cackles she ever with the same good-will:Uttering deep counsels in a foolish guise,That come as warnings, even to the wise;As when, of old, the martial city slept,Unconscious of the wily foe that creptUnder the midnight, till the alarm was heardOut from the mouth of Rome's plebeianbird.Full many a rare and subtile thing hathshe,Undreamed of in the world's philosophy:Toss-balls for children hath she humblyrolled,That shining jewels secretly enfold;Sibylline leaves she casteth on the air,Twisted in fool's-caps, blown unheeded by,That, in their lines grotesque, albeit, bearWords of grave truth, and signal prophecy;And lurking satire, whose sharp lashes hitA world of follies with their homely writ;With here and there a roughly uttered hint,That makes you wonder at the beautyin't;As if, along the wayside's dusty edge,A hot-house flower had blossomed in ahedge.So, like brave Layard in old Nineveh,Among the memories of ancient song,As curious relics, I would fain bestir;And gather, if it might be, into strongAnd shapely show, some wealth of itslost lore;Fragments of Truth's own architecture,strewedIn forms disjointed, whimsical, and rude,That yet, to simpler vision, grandly stoodComplete, beneath the golden light of

BRAHMIC

If a great poet think he sings,Or if the poem think it's sung,They do but sport the scattered plumesThat Mother Goose aside hath flung.Far or forgot to me is near:Shakspeare and Punch are all the same;The vanished thoughts do reappear,And shape themselves to fun or fame.They use my quills, and leave me out,Oblivious that I wear the wings;Or that a Goose has been about,When every little gosling sings.Strong men may strive for grander thought,But, six times out of every seven,My old philosophy hath taughtAll they can master this side heaven.

LITTLE BOY BLUE

"Little boy blue! come blow your horn!The sheep in the meadow, the cows in the corn!Where's little boy blue, that looks after the sheep?He's under the hay-mow, fast asleep!"Of morals in novels, we've had not a few;With now and then novel moralities too;And we 've weekly exhortings from pulpitto pew;But it strikes me,—and so it may chanceto strike you,—Scarce any are better than "Little BoyBlue."For the veteran dame knows her business:right well,And her quaint admonitions unerringlytell:She strings a few odd, careless words in ajingle,And the sharp, latent truth fairly makesyour ears tingle."Azure-robed Youth!" she cries, "up tothy post!And watch, lest thy wealth be all scatteredand lost:Silly thoughts are astray, beyond call ofthe horn,And passion breaks loose, and gets into thecorn!Is this the way Conscience looks after hersheep?In the world's soothing shadow, gone sound-ly asleep?"Is n't that, now, a sermon? No lengthenedvexationOf heads, and divisions, and argumenta-tion,But a straightforward leap to the sure ap-plication;And, though many a longer harangue isforgot,Of which careful reporters take notes onthe spot,I think,—as the "Deacon" declared of his"shay,"Put together for lasting for ever and aye,—A like immortality holding in view,The old lady's discourse will undoubtedly"dew"!

HICCOKY, DICCORY, DOCK

"Hiccory, diccory, dock!The mouse ran up the clock.The clock struck one, and down she run:Hiccory, diccory, dock!"She had her simple nest in a safe and cun-ning place,Away down in the quiet of the deep, old-fashioned case.A little crevice nibbled out led forth intothe world,And overhead, on busy wheels, the hoursand minutes whirled.High up in mystic glooms of space wasawful sceneryOf wires, and weights, and springs, and allgreat Time's machinery;But she had nought to do with these; ablessed little mouse,Whose only care beneath the sun was justto keep her house.For this was all she knew, or could; with-out her, just the sameThe earth's great centre drew the weight;the pendulum went and came;And days were born, and grew, and died;and stroke by stroke were toldThe hours by which the world and menare ever growing old.It suddenly occurred to her,—it struck herall at once,—That living among things of power, her-self had been a dunce."Somebody winds the clock!" she cried"Somebody comes and bringsAn iron finger that feels through and fum-bles at the springs;"And then it happens; then the buzz isstirred afar and near,And the hour sounds, and everywhere thegreat world stops to hear.I don't think, after all, it seems so hard athing to do.I know the way—I might run up andmake folks listen too."She sprang upon the leaden weight; butnot the merest whitDid all her added gravity avail to hurry it.She clambered up the steady cord; it wav-ered not a hair.She got among the earnest wheels; theyknew not she was there.She sat beside the silent bell; the patienthammer layWaiting an unseen bidding for the wordthat it should say.Only a solemn whisper thrilled the cham-bers of the clock,And the mouse listened: "Hiccory! hie—diccory! die—dock!"Something was coming. She had hit theripeness of the time;No tiny second was outreached by that ex-ultant climb;In no wise did the planet turn the faster tothe sun;She only met the instant, but the greatclock sounded—"One!"What then? Did she stand gloriouslyamong those central things,Her eye upon the vibrant bell, her heelupon the springs?Was her soul grand in unison with thatresounding chime,And her pulse-beat identical with the highpulse of Time?Ah, she was little! When the air firstshattered with that shock,Down ran the mouse into her hole. "Hic,diccory! die—dock!"Too plain to be translated is the truth thetale would show,Small souls, in solemn upshot, had betterwait below.

BO-PEEP

"Little Bo-PeepHas lost her sheep,And does n't know where to find 'em;Let 'em alone,And they 'll come home,And bring their tails behind 'em."Hope beckoned Youth, and bade him keep,On Life's broad plain, his shining sheep,And while along the sward they came,He called them over, each by name;This one was Friendship,—that was Health;Another Love,—another Wealth;One, fat, full-fleeced, was Social Station;Another, stainless, Reputation;In truth, a goodly flock of sheep,—A goodly flock, but hard to keep.Youth laid him down beside a fountain;Hope spread his wings to scale a mountain;And, somehow, Youth fell fast asleep,And left his crook to tend the sheep:No wonder, as the legend says,They took to very crooked ways.He woke—to hear a distant bleating,—The faithless quadrupeds were fleeting!Wealth vanished first, with stealthy tread,Then Friendship followed—to be fed,—And foolish Love was after led;Fair Fame,—alas! some thievish scampHad marked him with his own black stamp!And he, with Honor at his heels,Was out of sight across the fields.Health just hangs doubtful,—distant HopeLooks backward from the mountain slope,—And Youth himself—no longer Youth—Stands face to face with bitter Truth.Yet let them go! 'T were all in vainTo linger here in faith to find 'em;Forward!—nor pause to think of pain,—Till somewhere, on a nobler plain,A surer Hope shall lead the trainOf joys withheld to come againWith golden fleeces trailed behind 'em!

SOLOMON GRUNDY

"Solomon GrundyBorn on Monday,Christened on Tuesday,Married on Wednesday,Sick on Thursday,Worse on Friday,Dead on Saturday,Buried on Sunday:This was the endOf Solomon Grundy."So sings the unpretentious MuseThat guides the quill of Mother Goose,And in one week of mortal strifePresents the epitome of Life:But down sits Billy Shakspeare next,And, coolly taking up the text,His thought pursues the trail of mine,And, lo! the "Seven Ages" shine!O world! O critics! can't you seeHow Shakspeare plagiarizes me?And other bards will after come,To echo in a later age,"He lived,—he died: behold the sum,The abstract of the historian's page"Yet once for all the thing was done,Complete in Grundy's pilgrimage.For not a child upon the kneeBut hath the moral learned of me;And measured, in a seven days' span,The whole experience of man.

BOWLS

"Three wise men of GothamWent to sea in a bowl:If the bowl had been stronger,My song had been longer."Mysteriously suggestive! A vague hint,Yet a rare touch of most effective art,That of the bowl, and all the voyagers in't,Tells nothing, save the fact that they didstart.There ending suddenly, with subtle craft,The story stands—as 'twere a brokenshafts—'More eloquent in mute signification,Than lengthened detail, or precise relation.So perfect in its very non-achieving,That, of a truth, I cannot help believingA rash attempt at paraphrasing itMay prove a blunder, rather than a hit.Still, I must wish the venerable soulHad been explicit as regards the bowlWas it, perhaps, a railroad speculation?Or a big ship to carry all creation,That, by some kink of its machinery,Failed, in the end, to carry even three?Or other fond, erroneous calculationOf splendid schemes that died disastrously?It must have been of Gotham manufacture;Though strangely weak, and liable to frac-ture.Yet—pause a moment—strangely, did Isay?Scarcely, since, after all, it was but clay;—The stuff Hope takes to build her brittleboat,And therein sets the wisest men afloat.Truly, a bark would need be somewhatstronger,To make the halting history much longer.Doubtless, the good Dame did but gener-alize,—Took a broad glance at human enterprise,And earthly expectation, and so drew,In pithy lines, a parable most true,—Kindly to warn us ere we sail away,With life's great venture, in an ark ofclay,Where shivered fragments all around be-token,How even the "golden bowl" at last liesbroken!

CRADLED IN GREEN

"Rockaby, baby,Your cradle is green;Father's a nobleman,Mother's a queen;And Betty's a lady,And wears a gold ring,And Johnny's a drummer,And drums for the king!"O golden gift of childhood!That, with its kingly touch,Transforms to more than royaltyThe thing it loveth much!O second sight, bestowed aloneUpon the baby seer,That the glory held in Heaven's reserveDiscerneth even here!Though he be the humblest craftsman,No silk nor ermine piledCould make the father seem a whitMore noble to the child;And the mother,—ah, what queenlier crownCould rest upon her brow,Than the fair and gentle dignityIt weareth to him now?E'en the gilded ring that MichaelFor a penny fairing bought,Is the seal of Betty's ladyhoodTo his untutored thought;And the darling drum about his neck,—His very newest toy,—A bandsman unto MajestyHath straightway made the boy!O golden gift of childhood!If the talisman might last,How the dull Present still should gleamWith the glory of the Past!But the things of earth about usFade and dwindle as we go,And the long perspective of our lifeIs truth, and not a show!

"SIMILIA SIMILIBUS."

"There was a man in our town,And he was wondrous wise:He jumped into a bramble-bush,And scratched out both his eyes.But when he saw his eyes were out,With all his might and mainHe jumped into another bush,And scratched them in again!"Old Dr. Hahnemann read the tale,(And he was wondrous wise,)Of the man who, in the bramble-bush,Had scratched out both his eyes.And the fancy tickled mightilyHis misty German brain,That, by jumping in another bush,He got them back again.So he called it "homo-hop-athy".And soon it came about,That a curious crowd among the thornsWas hopping in and out.Yet, disguise it by the longest nameThey may, it is no use;For the world knows the discoveryWas made by Mother Goose!And not alone in medicineDoth the theory hold good;In Life and in Philosophy,The maxim still hath stood:A morsel more of anything,When one has got enough,And Nature's energy disownsThe whole unkindly stuff.A second negative affirms;And two magnetic polesOf charge identical, repel,—As sameness sunders souls.Touched with a first, fresh suffering,All solace is despised;But gathered sorrows grow serene,And grief is neutralized.And he who, in the world's mêlée,Hath chanced the worse to catch,May mend the matter, if he comeBack, boldly, to the scratch;Minding the lesson he receivedIn boyhood, from his mother.Whose cheery word, for many a bump,Was, Up and take another!

HOBBY-HORSES

"I had a little pony,His name was Dapple Gray:I lent him to a ladyTo ride a mile away.She whipped him,She lashed him,She rode him through the mire;I would n't lend my pony now,For all the lady's hire."Our hobbies, of whatever sortThey be, mine honest friend,Of fancy, enterprise, or thought,'T is hardly wise to lend.Some fair imagination, shrinedIn form poetic, maybe,You fondly trusted to the World,—That most capricious Lady.Or a high, romantic theory,Magnificently planned,In flush of eager confidenceYou bade her take in hand.But she whipped it, and she lashed it,And bespattered it with mire,Till your very soul felt stained within,And scourged with stripes of fire.Yet take this thought, and hold it fast,Ye Martyrs of To-day!That same great World, with all its scorn,You 've lifted on its way!

MISSIONS

"Hogs in the garden,—Catch 'em, Towser!Cows in the cornfield,—Run, boys, run!Fire on the mountains,—Run, boys, run boys!Cats in the cream-pot,—Run, girls, run!"I don't stand up for Woman's RightNot I,—no, no!The real lionesses fight,—I let it go.Yet, somehow, as I catch the callOf the world's voice,That speaks a summons unto allIts girls and boys;In such strange contrast still it ringsAs church-bells' bomeTo the pert sound of tinkling thingsOne hears at home;And wakes an impulse, not germanePerhaps, to woman,Yet with a thrill that makes it plain'T is truly human;—A sudden tingle at the springsOf noble feeling,The spirit-power for valiant thingsClearly revealing.But Eden's curse doth daily dealIts certain dole,—And the old grasp upon the heelHolds back the soul!So, when some rousing deed's to do,To save a nation,Or, on the mountains, to subdueA conflagration,Woman! the work is not for you;Mind your vocation!Out from the cream-pot comes a mewOf tribulation!Meekly the world's great exploits leaveUnto your betters;So bear the punishment of Eve,Spirit in fetters!Only, the hidden fires will glow,And, now and then,A beacon blazeth out belowThat startles men!Some Joan, through battle-field to stake,Danger embracing;Some Florence, for sweet mercy's sakePestilence facing;Whose holy valor vindicatesThe royal birthThat, for its crowning, only waitsThe end of earth;And, haply, when we all stand freed,In strength immortal,Such virgin-lamps the host shall leadThrough heaven's portal!

GOING BACK TO OUR MUTTONS

"There was an old man of Tobago,Who lived on rice, gruel, and sago,Till, much to his bliss,His physician said this:To a leg, sir, of mutton, you may go.He set a monkey to baste the mutton,And ten pounds of butter he put on."Chain up a child, and away he will go";I have heard of the proverb interpreted so;The spendthrift is son to the miser,—andstill,When the Devil would work his most piti-less will,He sends forth the seven, for such embas-sies kept,To the house that is empty and garnishedand swept:For poor human nature a pendulum seems.,That must constantly vibrate between twoextremes.The closer the arrow is drawn to thebow,Once slipped from the string, all the further't will go:Let a panic arise in the world of finance,And the mad flight of Fashion be checkedby the chance,It certainly seems a most wonderful thing,When the ropes are let go again, how itwill swing!And even the decent observance of Lent,Stirs sometimes a doubt how the time hasbeen spent,When Easter brings out the new bonnetsand gowns,And a flood of gay colors o'erflows in thetowns.So in all things the feast doth still followthe fast,And the force of the contrast gives zest tothe last;And until he is tried, no frail mortal cantell,The inch being offered, he won't take theell.We are righteously shocked at the folliesof fashion;Nay, standing outside, may get quite in apassionAt the prodigal flourishes other folks puton:But many good people this side of Tobago,If respited once from their diet of sago,Would outdo the monkey in basting themutton!

GOING TO DOVER

"Leg over legAs the dog went to Dover;When he came to a stile,Jump he went over."Perhaps you would n't see it here,But, to my fancy, 't is quite clearThat Mother Goose just meant to showHow the dog Patience on doth go:With steadfast nozzle, pointing low,—Leg over leg, however slow,—And labored breath, but naught complaining,Still, at each footstep, somewhat gaining,—Quietly plodding, mile on mile,And gathering for a nervous boundAt every interposing stile,—So traversing the tedious ground,Till all at length, he measures over,And walks, a victor, into Dover.And, verily, no other wayDoth human progress win the day;Step after step,—and o'er and o'er,—Each seeming like the one before,So that't is only once a while,—When sudden Genius springs the stileThat marks a section of the plain,Beyond whose bound fresh fields againTheir widening stretch untrodden sweep,—The world looks round to see the leap.Pale Science, in her laboratory,Works on with crucible and wireUnnoticed, till an instant gloryCrowns some high issue, as with fire,And men, with wondering eyes awide,Gauge great Invention's giant stride.No age, no race, no single soul,By lofty tumbling gains the goal.The steady pace it keeps between,—The little points it makes unseen,—By these, achieved in gathering might,It moveth on, and out of sight,And wins, through all that's overpast,The city of its hopes at last.

RAGS AND ROBES

"Hark, hark!The dogs do bark;Beggars are coming to town:Some in rags,Some in tags,"And some in velvet gowns!"Coming, coming always!Crowding into earth;Seizing on this human life,Beggars from the birth.Some in patent penury;Some, alas! in shame;And some in fading velvetOf hereditary fame;But all in deep, appeaseless want,As mendicants to live;And go beseeching through the world,For what the world may give.Beggars, beggars, all of us!Expectants from "our youth:With hands outstretched, and asking almsOf Hope and Love and Truth.Nor, verily, doth he escapeWho, wrapt in cold contempt,Denies alike to give or take,And dreams himself exempt;Who never, in appeal to man,Nor in a prayer to Heaven,Will own that aught he doth desire,Or ask that aught be given.Whose human heart a stoic prideFolds as a velvet pall;Yet hides an eagreness within,Worse beggary than all!Coming, coming always!And the bluff Apostle waitsAs the throng pours upward from the earthTo Heaven's eternal gates.In shreds of torn affection,In passion-rended rags;While scarcely at the portalThe great procession flags;For the pillared doors of gloryOn their hinges hang awide;Where each asking soul may enter,And at last be satisfied!But a cold, calm shade arriveth,In self-complacent trim,—And Peter riseth up to seeEspecially to him."Good morrow, saint! I'm going inTo take a stroll, you know;Not that I want for anything,—But just to see the show!""Hold!" thunders out the warden,"Be pleased to pause a bit!For seats celestial, let me say,You 're not apparelled fit:Yonder 's the brazen door that leadsSpectators to the pit!Whatever may be thought on earth,We've other rules in heaven;And only poverty confessedFinds free admittance given!"

BLACKBIRDS

"Sing a song o' sixpence, a pocket full of rye;Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie:When the pie was opened, they all began to sing,And was n't this a dainty dish to set before the king?The king was in his counting-house, counting out his money;The queen was in the parlor, eating bread and honey;The maid was in the garden, hanging out the clothes,And along came a blackbird, and nipt off her nose!"It doesn't take a conjurer to seeThe sort of curious pasty this might be;A flock of flying rumors, caught alive,And housed, like swarming bees within ahive,—Instead of what were far more wiselydone,Having their worthless necks wrung, everyone;—And so a dish of dainty gossip making,Smooth covered with a show of secrecy,That one but takes the pleasant pains ofbreaking,And out the wide-mouthed knaves pop,eagerly.Blackbirds, indeed! Each chattering on-ditComes forth, full feathered, black as blackcan be;With quivering throats, all tremulous tosing,And please, forsooth, some little socialking;Whose reign may last as long as he is ableTo call his court around a dinner-table.

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