Category: Poem

The Artful Ant

By Oliver Herford

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

OIiver Herford. [Headpiece for Herford’s poem “The Artful Ant” as it appeared in 1891 in the children’s magazine *St. Nicholas*, vol. XVIII, no. 4.] Drawing, 1891, Harvard Art Museums.

Once on a time an artful Ant 
    Resolved to give a ball, 
For tho’ in stature she was scant, 
    She was not what you'd call 
A shy or bashful little Ant. 
    (She was not shy at all.)

She sent her invitations through 
    The forest far and wide, 
To all the Birds and Beasts she knew, 
    And many more beside. 
(“You never know what you can do,” 
    Said she, “until you 've tried.”)

Five-score acceptances came in 
    Faster than she could read. 
Said she: “Dear me! I’d best begin
    To stir myself indeed!”
(A pretty pickle she was in, 
    With five-score guests to feed!) 

The artful Ant sat up all night, 
    A-thinking o’er and o’er, 
How she could make from nothing, quite 
    Enough to feed five-score. 
(Between ourselves I think she might 
    Have thought of that before.) 

She thought, and thought, and thought all night,
    And all the following day,
Till suddenly she struck a bright
    Idea, which was— (but say!
Just what it was I am not quite
    At liberty to say.)

Enough, that when the festal day
    Came round, the Ant was seen
To smile in a peculiar way,
    As if— (but you may glean
From seeing tragic actors play
    The kind of smile I mean.)

From here and there and everywhere
    The happy creatures came,
The Fish alone could not be there.
    (And they were not to blame.
“They really could not stand the air,
    But thanked her just the same.”)

The lion, bowing very low,
    Said to the Ant: “I ne’er
Since Noah’s Ark remember so
    Delightful an affair.”
(A pretty compliment, although
    He really wasn’t there.)

They danced, and danced, and danced, and danced;
    It was a jolly sight!
They pranced, and pranced, and pranced, and pranced,
    Till it was nearly light!
And then their thoughts to supper chanced
    To turn. (As well they might!)

Then said the Ant: “It’s only right 
    That supper should begin, 
And if you will be so polite, 
    Pray take each other in.”
(The emphasis was very slight, 
But rested on “Take in.”) 

They needed not a second call, 
    They took the hint. Oh, —yes, 
The largest guest “took in” the small, 
    The small “took in” the less, 
The less “took in” the least of all. 
    (It was a great success!)

As for the rest—but why spin out 
    This narrative of woe?— 
The Lion took them in about 
    As fast as they could go. 
(And went home looking very stout, 
    And walking very slow.) 

And when the Ant, not long ago, 
    Lost to all sense of shame, 
Tried it again, I chance to know 
    That not one answer came. 
(Save from the Fish, who “could not go, 
But thanked her all the same.”)

Antoine-Louis Barye. *Lion Sleeping*. Watercolor on wove paper, lined, 1810-75, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

HERFORD, OLIVER. “THE ARTFUL ANT,” IN ARTFUL ANTICKS, 4-9. NEW YORK: THE CENTURY CO., 1897.

Contexts

In a Life Magazine issue from November 1894, editor Robert Bridges noted that, in Artful Anticks, “when [Oliver Herford] makes rhymes about a kitten, a dormouse, a spider, or a crocodile, you are absolutely certain that he has put himself on such friendly terms with each animal that he is not only able to reveal the quirks of its mind, but draw a picture of them. That is why grown folks will get as much fun out of this book as children.”

Herford was a well-known poet, humorist writer, and illustrator.

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

artful: Skilfully adapted for the accomplishment of a purpose; ingenious, clever. Hence: cunning, crafty, deceitful.

festal: Characteristic of a feast; (hence also) joyous or celebratory in tone; (of a person or group) in a festive or holiday mood.

five-score: Rarely used for “a hundred” (from Shakespeare).

Resources for Further Study

Read more poems by Oliver Herford in All Poetry.
Reusable Art features a growing collection of Oliver Herford’s illustrations

1850s Poem Water

Stop! Stop! Pretty Water

By Eliza Lee Follen

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

Mary Nimmo Moran. *Across the Water.* Etching on paper, ca. 1880-1890,
Smithsonian Art Museum. Public Domain.

I.

“Stop! stop! pretty water,”
Said Mary one day,
To a frolicsome brook
That was running away.

II.

“You run on so fast!
I wish you would stay;
My boat and my flowers
You will carry away.

III.

“But I will run after;
Mother says that I may;
For I would know where
You are running away.”

IV.

So Mary ran on;
But I have heard say
That she never could find
Where the brook ran away.

FOLLEN, ELIZA LEE. “STOP! STOP! PRETTY WATER,” IN LITTLE SONGS, 16-7. BOSTON: WHITTEMORE & CO., 1856.

Contexts

Eliza Lee Follen (1787-1860) was an abolitionist, editor, and writer. In her preface to the first edition of Little Songs, published in 1833, she wrote:

“The little folks must decide whether the book is entertaining. To them I present my little volume, with the earnest hope that it will receive their approbation. If children love to lisp my rhymes, while parents find no fault in them, I ask no higher praise.”

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

frolicsome: Full of frolic; gay, merry, mirthful..

1920s Birds Poem

Who Stole the Bird’s Nest

By Lydia Maria Child

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

L. Prang & Co. *Bird’s Nest with Vines*. Chromolithograph, ca. 1861-1897, Digital Commonwealth. Public Domain.

“To whit! To whit! To whee!
Will you listen to me?
Who stole four eggs I laid,
And the nice nest I made?”

“Not I,” said the cow, “moo, oo, moo, oo!
Such a thing I’d never do.
I gave you a wisp of hay,
But didn’t take your nest away:
Not I,” said the cow, “moo, oo, moo, oo!
Such a thing I’d never do!”

“To whit! To whit! To whee!
Will you listen to me?
Who stole four eggs I laid,
And the nice nest I made?”

“Bobolink! Bobolink!
Now, what do you think?
Who stole a nest away
From the plum tree to-day?”

“Not I,” said the dog, “bow wow!
I couldn’t be so mean, I trow–
I gave hairs the nest to make,
But the nest I did not take.
Not I,” said the dog, “bow wow!
I couldn’t be so mean I trow.”

“To whit! To whit! To whee!
Will you listen to me?
Who stole four eggs I laid,
And the nice warm nest I made?”

“Bobolink! Bobolink!
Now, what do you think?
Who stole a nest away
From the plum tree to-day?”

“Coo, coo! Coo, coo! Coo, coo!
Let me speak a word, too–
Who stole that pretty nest
From little yellow-breast?”

“Not I,” said the sheep, “oh, no!
I would not treat a poor bird so.
I gave wool the nest to line,
But the nest was none of mine:
Baa, baa,” said the sheep, “oh, no!
I wouldn’t treat a poor bird so.”

Pages from “Who Stole the Bird’s Nest?” This accordion picture book was published by L. Prang & Company in 1864-65. In this edition, the text of the poem is slightly different from the original. There is no author or illustrator credit. Public Domain.

“To whit! To whit! To whee!
Will you listen to me?
Who stole four eggs I laid,
And the nice nest I made?”

“Bobolink! Bobolink!
Now, what do you think?
Who stole a nest away
From the plum tree to-day?”

“Coo, coo! Coo, coo! Coo, coo!
Let me speak a word, too–
Who stole that pretty nest
From little yellow-breast?”

“Caw, caw,” cried the crow,
I should like to know,
What thief took away 
A bird’s nest to-day?”

“Cluck, cluck,” said the hen,
“Don’t ask me again,
Why! I haven’t a chick
That would do such trick.
We all gave her a feather,

And she wove them together.
I’d scorn to intrude
On her and her brood:
Cluck, cluck,” said the hen,
“don’t ask me again.”

“Chirr-a-whirr! Chirr-a-whirr!
All the birds make a stir!
Let us find out his name,
And all cry: ‘For shame!’”

“I would not rob a bird,”
    Said little Mary Green;
“I think I never heard
    Of anything so mean.”

“’T is very cruel, too,”
    Said little Alice Neal;
“I wonder if he knew,
    How sad the bird would feel!”

A little boy hung down his head,
And went and hid behind his bed;
For he stole that pretty nest,
From poor little yellow-breast;
And he felt so full of shame,
He didn’t like to tell his name.

L. Prang & Co. *Bird’s Eggs*. Chromolithograph, ca. 1861-1897, Digital Commonwealth. Public Domain.

CHILD, LYDIA MARIA. “WHO STOLE THE BIRD’S NEST,” IN STORIES FOR LITTLE CHILDREN, COMPILED BY SUSAN S. HARRIMAN, 117-21 [VOLUME ONE OF THE KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN’S HOUR, ED. BY LUCY WHEELOCK]. BOSTON, NEW YORK: HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY, 1920.

Contexts

Lydia Maria Child’s “Who Stole the Bird’s Nest?” was initially published in 1844 in the second volume of Child’s Flowers for Children. Its inclusion in Lucy Wheelock’s anthology for kindergarteners, more than seventy years later, attests to Child’s cultural influence and to the timelessness of the conservation drive that animates her poem.

Wheelock (1857-1946), main editor of the The Kindergarten Children’s Hour, was at one point the president of the International Kindergarten Union. Through her pedagogical practice, she supported the kindergarten reform in the United States and helped bridge early disagreements about how to teach 5-year-olds. She believed that kindergarten education could help tackle the cycle of poverty, a concern that remains relevant today.

The Kindergarten Children’s Hour was comprised of five illustrated volumes. Susan S. Harriman was in charge of the first one, a collection of stories and rhymes for little children. In the second, Maude C. Nash suggests home activities, while in the third Winthrop Packard turns her interactions with her own children in a series of “Talks to Children.” Following a logical progression, the fourth volume consisted of “Talks to Mothers.” In the fifth and final book, Alice Wyman anthologized songs and music for children.

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

trow: To believe in or on; to have confidence in; to trust to. Obsolete or rare (archaic).

wisp: A handful, bunch, or small bundle (of hay, straw, grass, etc.).

Resources for Further Study

In addition to being a writer, Lydia Maria Child was also a prominent abolitionist and activist. She is one of the inductees at the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum.
Carolyn L. Karcher’s The First Woman in the Republic.
Lydia Moland’s Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life.

Contemporary Connections

There is nothing birds will not try to integrate into their nests! Learn how to help them build safer nests by making safe materials available to them.

And here is what to do if you find a nest where it may not belong.

1910s Birds Poem Wild animals

Bread and Milk

By Gene Stratton-Porter

Annotations by Rene marzuk

Every morning before we eat,
My mother prays a prayer sweet.
    With folded hand and low-bowed head:
    “Give us this day our daily bread.”
But I’d like tarts and ginger cakes,
Puffs and pie like grandmother makes.
    So ’smorning I said my appetite
    Must have a cake, or ’twouldn’t eat a bite.
Then mother said: “’Fore you get through,
You’ll find just bread and milk will do.”

She always lets me think things out,
But I went to the yard to pout,
    What I saw there–Upon my word!
    I’m glad I’m a girl–not a bird.
Redbreast pulled up a slick fishworm,[1]
To feed her child: it ate the squirm.
    Bee-bird came flying close to me,[2]
    And caught a stinging honey bee.
She pushed it down her young, alive.
She must have thought him a beehive.

Old warbler searched the twigs for slugs,[3]
Rose Grosbeak took potato bugs.[4]
    Missus Wren snapped up a spider,[5]
    To feed her baby, close beside her.
Little Kingbirds began to squall,[6]
Their mother hurried at their call. 
    She choked them with dusty millers.[7]
    Cuckoos ate hairy caterpillars.[8]
Blue birds had worms, where I could see,[9]
For breakfast, in their hollow tree.
    Then little Heron made me squeal,
    Beside our lake he ate an eel. 
When young Screech Owl gulped a whole mouse,[10]
I started fast for our nice house.

Right over me–for pit-tee sake,
Home flew a hawk, with a big snake!
    So ’for my tummy got awful sick,
    I ran and kissed my mother quick.
I acted just as fine as silk
And asked polite for bread and milk.

Original photograph by Gene Stratton-Porter from *Morning Face*, p. 26.

STRATTON-PORTER, GENE. “BREAD AND MILK,” IN MORNING FACE, 26-7. NEW YORK: DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY, 1916.

John J. Audubon. *American Robin.* Aquatint in color, 1832, Brooklyn Museum. Public Domain.

[1] Robin red-breast is one of the many names of the American Robin, one of the most popular backyard birds in North America. Early European settlers named the American Robin after the European Robin because of its reddish breast. However, the American Robin is actually a thrush.

[2] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the name bee-bird can refer to either a Spotted Flycatcher or a hummingbird. Because the bird in Stratton-Porter’s poem catches a bee, we can safely assume the speaker refers to flycatchers, an heterogeneous group of migratory birds that breed in Indiana and feed on insects.

*Wood Warbler, from the Birds of America Series (N4) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands.* Commercial color lithograph, 1888, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

[3] North America is home to more than 53 species of warblers, small to medium-sized songbirds.

[4] Listen to the distinctive songs and calls of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak. The potato bug, or Colorado potato beetle, is considered a pest of potato, eggplant, tomato, and pepper plants.

[5] A comprehensive resource on North American wrens.

[6] Listen to the distinctive songs and calls of the Eastern Kingbird.

[7] The speaker is probably referring to miller moths, a generic name for moths, mainly army cutworms, which proliferate around homes. Coincidentally, the dusty miller (known as silver dust or silver ragwort as well), is also a perennial plant that is popular with gardeners because of its striking silvery leaves.

[8] Overview of the Black-billed Cuckoo, the most common of the three types living in North America–the others are the Yellow-billed Cuckoo and the Mangrove Cuckoo.

[9] A guide to the Eastern Bluebird, courtesy of the Audubon Society.

[10] In addition to mammals like rats, mice, squirrels, moles, and rabbits, the Eastern screech-owl also feeds on insects, invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, and other birds.

Contexts

In her introduction to the 1996 anthology Coming Through the Swamp: The Nature Writings of Gene Stratton Porter, Sydney Landon Plum reveals that, after the commercial success of Gene Stratton-Porter’s 1909 novel A Girl of the Limberlost, the author and conservationist talked Doubleday, Page & Company into publishing once nature work for each of her subsequent novels. Morning Face, a collection of prose and poems published by Doubleday in 1916, probably saw the light as a result of this agreement. Most of the book’s illustrations are photographs by the author herself, an accomplished self-taught photographer. In fact, according to Plum, Stratton Porter “ardently supported the use of photography for nature study as a substitute for the common practice of killing scores of the natural subjects in order to study them.” As evident in the quatrain that serves as the dedication of Morning Face, Stratton-Porter had a juvenile audience in mind for this book, although one can also make the case that, by identifying herself with the “little girl with a face of morning,” she is also extending her appeal to the inner children within readers of all ages:

One little girl with a face of morning,    
a wondering smile her lips adorning,    
wishes her pictures and stories to share,    
so she sends them to children, everywhere.

Resources for Further Study

Kathryn Aalto’s “The Legend of Limberlost,” available through the Smithsonian Magazine‘s website, offers a portrait of Stratton-Porter that emphasizes her love of nature and her conservationist efforts.
Gene Stratton-Porter’s Cabin at Wildflower Woods is a museum open to the public in Rome City, Indiana. Stratton-Porter designed the cabin, which was completed in 1914 and sits on 148 acres of fields, woods, and gardens.
An extensive list of Indiana’s bird species. Stratton-Porter lived most of her life in this state.
Enjoy this 1915 brief recording of Charles C. Gorst’s impressive imitations of the songs and calls of American birds, including the American Robin, the bluebird, and the cuckoo, which Stratton-Porter includes in her poem.

1910s Flowers Insects Poem Wild animals

The Spider’s Trap

By Gene Stratton-Porter

Annotations by Rene marzuk

Maria Sibylla Merian. *Spiders, Ants and Hummingbird on a Branch of a Guava*. Colored copper engraving from *Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium*, Plate XLIII, 1705, Wikimedia. Public Domain.

A big black spider, homed in my tulip bed,
So that her children might be comfortably fed.[1]
She wove her dainty web, with such cunning art,
Around every stamen in the tulip’s heart,
That never a bee, called by the colours gay,
Lived to hunt honey on another fair day.

STRATTON-PORTER, GENE. “THE SPIDER’S TRAP,” IN MORNING FACE, 29. NEW YORK: DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY, 1916.

[1] Although all spiders wrap their eggs with silk to keep them protected, only a few species like cellar spiders, crab spiders and wolf spiders, among others, actively guard these egg sacs from predators. Upon hatching, most spiderlings are left to survive on their own.

Contexts

One little girl with a face of morning,
a wondering smile her lips adorning,
wishes her pictures and stories to share,
so she sends them to children, everywhere.

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

stamen: Botany. The male or fertilizing organ of a flowering plant, consisting of two parts, the anther, which is a double-celled sac containing the pollen, and the filament, a slender footstalk supporting the anther.

Resources for Further Study

A list of 26 common spiders found in the United States.

Kathryn Aalto’s “The Legend of Limberlost,” available through the Smithsonian Magazine‘s website, offers a portrait of Stratton-Porter that emphasizes her love of nature and her conservationist efforts.

Gene Stratton-Porter’s Cabin at Wildflower Woods is a museum open to the public in Rome City, Indiana. Stratton-Porter designed the cabin, which was completed in 1914 and sits on 148 acres of fields, woods, and gardens.

Contemporary Connections

Did you know that March 14 is National Save a Spider Day in the United States? Of about 50,000 different kinds of spiders in the world,

1920s Flowers Poem

The Dandelion

By Anonymous

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

L. Prang & Co. (publisher). *To my Valentine.* Color chromolithograph, 1882, Library of Congress. Public Domain.

O dandelion, yellow as gold,
    What do you do all day?
I just wait here in the tall green grass
    Till the children come to play.

O dandelion, yellow as gold,
    What do you do all night?
I wait and wait till the cool dews fall
    And my hear grows long and white.

And what do you do when your hair is white,
    And the children come to play?
They take me up in their dimpled hands,
    And blow my hair away.[1]

ANONYMOUS. “THE DANDELION,” IN STORIES FOR LITTLE CHILDREN, COMPILED BY SUSAN S. HARRIMAN, 10 [VOLUME ONE OF THE KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN’S HOUR, ED. BY LUCY WHEELOCK]. BOSTON, NEW YORK: HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY, 1920.

[1] A time lapse video shows a single dandelion’s cycle from yellow flower to puffy head of seeds. Also, did you know that each dandelion’s petal is, in fact, a flower?

Contexts

Lucy Wheelock (1857-1946), the main editor of the multivolume anthology The Kindergarten Children’s Hour, was at one point the president of the International Kindergarten Union. Through her pedagogical practice, she supported the kindergarten reform in the United States and helped bridge early disagreements about how to teach 5-year-olds. She believed that kindergarten education could help tackle the cycle of poverty, a concern that remains relevant today.

Resources for Further Study

Native to Asia and Europe, dandelions arrived in America in the seventeenth century. An article from the National Library of Medicine documents many of the uses of this perennial plant.
Dandelions fell out of favor among home gardeners in the twentieth century as lawns in the United States became popular as status symbols. Ketzel Levine, writing for NPR, asks us to reconsider the collective dislike of the wish-granting plant.
Check out dandelion recipes at the Old Farmer’s Almanac website!

1910s Birds Poem Wild animals

Horned Owl

By Gene Stratton-Porter

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

“When the moonlight floods the swampland, 
When the bittern’s wailing croak,[1]
   And the wildcat’s scream of anger
Clog the heart of forest folk,
   I search tall trees for frightened crows,[2]
Hunt ducks ’neath sedges, hares at play,
   Then I set late travelers trembling,
By demanding until break of day:

“‘Who, who, huh, whoo, who waugh?
   Don’t I make cold shivers run?
Who, huh, whoo? I’d question all day,
   If my eyes could bear the sun.’”[3]

STRATTON-PORTER, GENE. “HORNED OWL,” IN MORNING FACE, 63. NEW YORK: DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY, 1916.

John James Audubon. *The Birds of America, Plate #337: “American Bittern.”* Hand-colored engraving and aquatint on paper [from a drawing by Audubon’s son John Woodhouse], 1827-1838. Public Domain.

[1] The American Bittern, protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, is a medium-sized heron commonly found in wetlands and most active at dusk and through the night. The website All About Birds includes audio samples of the American Bittern’s distinctive calls and songs.

[2] The Great Horned Owl is the most common owl in North America. Its “horns” are actually tufts of feathers that have nothing to with hearing, although their ultimate purpose still baffles and divides researchers. The Great Horned Owl is a powerful predator that is also known as the “tiger of the woods.” Its penetrating hoots are quite diverse, constituting a lexicon all of their own.

[3] Contrary to popular belief, owls’ pupils can contract in response to brightness, so they can also see in daylight.

Contexts

One little girl with a face of morning,
a wondering smile her lips adorning,
wishes her pictures and stories to share,
so she sends them to children, everywhere.

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

bittern: A genus of grallatorial birds ( Botaurus), nearly allied to the herons, but smaller. spec. The species B. stellaris, a native of Europe and the adjoining parts of the Old World, but now rare in Great Britain on account of the disappearance of the marshes which it frequents. It is noted for the ‘boom’ which it utters during the breeding season, whence its popular names mire-drum, and bull of the bog, and the scientific term botaurus (see above). With qualifying adj., as American bittern n. Botaurus lentiginosus of N. America. least bittern n. Ixobrychus exilis of N. America. little bittern n. any of several small bitterns of the genus Ixobrychus.

sedge: A name for various coarse grassy, rush-like or flag-like plants growing in wet places.

waugh: An exclamation indicating grief, indignation or the like. Chiefly as attributed to North American Indians, etc.

Resources for Further Study

1910s Poem

Things That Walk With Feet

By Annette Wynne

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

Giacomo Merculiano. *Actiniaria*. Chromolithograph, 1893 [in Richard Lydekker’s *The Royal Natural History*]. Public Domain.

Things that walk with feet or fly above the land
The creatures of the sea can hardly understand.

Wynne, AnNette. “Things That Walk With Feet,” in for Days and Days, 159. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1919.

Contexts

Annette Wynne was an American poet who mainly wrote for children. In addition to For Days and Days: A Year Round of Treasury of Child Verse (1919), she also published Treasure Things (1922).

1910s Flowers Poem

Dandelions in the Sun

By Annette Wynne

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

J. & J. G. Low Art Tile Works. *Tile* [Tile face decorated with stylized dandelions]. Molded glazed earthenware, 1877-83, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

Dandelions in the sun,
Golden dollars every one,
Let us pick them and go buy
All the sea and all the sky.

Dandelions in the sun,
Golden dollars every one–
Who can be as rich as we
Buying sky and hill and sea!

Wynne, AnNette. “Dandelions in the Sun,” in for Days and Days, 106. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1919.

Contexts

Annette Wynne was an American poet who mainly wrote for children. In addition to For Days and Days: A Year Round of Treasury of Child Verse (1919), she also published Treasure Things (1922).

Resources for Further Study

Native to Asia and Europe, dandelions arrived in America in the seventeenth century. An article from the National Library of Medicine documents many of the uses of this perennial plant.
Dandelions fell out of favor among home gardeners in the twentieth century as lawns in the United States became popular as status symbols. Ketzel Levine, writing for NPR, asks us to reconsider the collective dislike of the wish-granting plant.
Check out dandelion recipes at the Old Farmer’s Almanac website!

1910s Birds Poem

The Wires Are So Still and High

By Annette Wynne

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

Vocational training for S.A.T.C. in University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Class in Pole-Climbing in the course for telephone electricians, with some of their instructors. University of Michigan., ca. 1918. The U.S. National Archives. Public Domain.

The wires are so still and high
We never hear the words go by,
Yet messages fly far and near–
I wonder if the birds can hear.

And when they perch on wires and sing,
I wonder are they listening,
And telling out to earth and sky
A lovely word is going by![1]

Wynne, AnNette. “The Wires Are So Still and High,” in for Days and Days: A Year-Round Treasury of Child Verse, 14. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1919.

[1] Both telegraphs and telephones use electricity to transmit their signal through wires. Although Wynne’s image is very suggestive, sound is actually encoded—or translated—into electrical signals as it travels to its destination.

Contexts

Annette Wynne was an American poet who mainly wrote for children. In addition to For Days and Days: A Year Round of Treasury of Child Verse (1919), she also published Treasure Things (1922).

Resources for Further Study

This timeline gathers key moments from the development of telephone technology and infrastructure in the United States. Interestingly, many of the popular concerns and anxieties associated with the telephone in its early adoption stage are similar to those later inspired by internet.
A teacher’s guide from the Library of Congress on the Industrial Revolution in the United States helps contextualize the development of communication technologies beginning in the nineteenth century.
An informative video from the Natural Museum of American History shows how telegraphs and telephones work.
“A Natural History of the Wooden Utility Pole,” by the California Public Utilities Commission. The document begins with an excerpt from John Updike’s 1963 poem “Telephone Poles.”

Contemporary Connections

Caira Wynn Blackwell writes about “The Racist History of Telephone Poles.”