Wynken, Blynken and Nod are slightly foreign, yet familiar, and immensely satisfying sounds. They are almost mini-characterisations in themselves. The poem is a virtuoso piece of rhythmic structuring, with its tripping four-beat/three-beat lines, and the master strokes of variation which extend the second quatrain of each stanza, adding a fifth...More
Eugene Field Sr. (September 2, 1850 – November 4, 1895) was an American writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays. He was known as the "poet of childhood".
Before his death, he wrote and published an anonymous work about a 12-year-old boy being seduced by a woman in her 30s. It was titled "Only a Boy". In the 1920s, American drama critic and magazine editor George Jean Nathan recalled it as a popular forbidden work among those coming of age at the turn of the century, along with Fanny Hill and "Green Girls of Paris”. It was published by Grove Press in 1968 with the real author's name.
Eugene Field Sr. (September 2, 1850 – November 4, 1895) was an American writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays. He was known as the "poet of childhood".
Before his death, he wrote and published an anonymous work about a 12-year-old boy being seduced by a woman in her 30s. It was titled "Only a Boy". In the 1920s, American drama critic and magazine editor George Jean Nathan recalled it as a popular forbidden work among those coming of age at the turn of the century, along with Fanny Hill and "Green Girls of Paris”. It was published by Grove Press in 1968 with the real author's name.
Book Summary
Wynken, Blynken and Nod are slightly foreign, yet familiar, and immensely satisfying sounds. They are almost mini-characterisations in themselves. The poem is a virtuoso piece of rhythmic structuring, with its tripping four-beat/three-beat lines, and the master strokes of variation which extend the second quatrain of each stanza, adding a fifth rhymed line, and dividing the last into monometers. This separation insists that each name is fully relished. It turns the print on the page into a voice. That "Nod" is left unrhymed reveals perfect pitch.
Eugene Field
