Historic American Buildings Survey November 25, 1936 VIEW FROM SOUTHEAST – Pierce Mill, Tilden Street & Beach Drive Northwest, Washington, District of Columbia, DC
I.
The dreary Autumn days are here,
And stern November’s chilly rain
Is falling, falling far and near,
On the brown wood and faded plain.
II.
Gone is the wind’s sweet voice of mirth,
It singeth now a song of grief,
And spreads upon the barren earth
A carpet of the dying leaf.
III.
Deserted are the silent woods,
And gone the forests’ warbling throng:
Within its solemn solitudes
Are hushed the syllables of song.
IV.
A shadow fills the bending sky,
Clouds hover like the starless night,
And hurt on the storm-winds by,
Like banners o’er the field of fight.
V.
There is a voice upon the air
That fills the heart of man with fear;
A heritage of want and care
Is linked with the departing year.
VI.
There is within, a silent grief,
When seasons we have loved depart;
A sorrow o’er the fallen leaf,
Undying in the human heart.
VII.
Lessons of wisdom guide us here,
Heard in the north-wind’s cheerless sound,
Seen in the woodlands brown and sere,
And the shorn fields of furrowed ground.
VIII.
Life hath the seasons, in their train,
Seed-time and Summer, as they flow;
Manhood, like Autumn’s golden grain,
And hoary[3] age, like driven snow.
IX.
Then cometh, when our youth hath fled,
A winter in these hearts of ours,
When hope and love and joy are dead,
And withered like summer flowers.
22. Historic American Buildings Survey November 25, 1936 November 25,1936 11:40 A. M. VIEW FROM SOUTHEAST – Pierce Mill, Tilden Street & Beach Drive Northwest, Washington, District of Columbia, DC. Photograph. Washington DC, 1936. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/dc0344.photos.025987p/
Ide, A M. “November.” Poem. In The Knickerbocker, 25:227. American Periodicals, 1845.
[1] November is that transitional month that comes between fall and winter. By then, most leaves have fallen off trees (Blasting News)
[2] American farmer, editor, author, and poet. Read more about Ide on our Author’s Biographies page.
[3] Of the hair, head, or beard: grey or white with age. (Oxford English Dictionary)
Contexts
While this poem on the surface does not seem to be meant for children, I do think that it could be applicable for cross-audiences. The Knickerbocker magazine provided works for all types of audiences, thus the work included in it can be considered for children and adults alike.
Free children of New England! gather round Your hearths on this time-honored festival, A freeman’s blessing on the slave to call, Who toils in hopeless pain beyond the sound Of joy and gladness in your dwelling found. Free though your own unfettered footsteps are, [1] Your wills to follow, limitless and far, Your land is yet with freedom’s wreath uncrowned.
There’s not a hollow of her smiling hills That may not echo to the blood-hound’s baying As o’er the field the free-born laborer tills, The slave’s proud master hunts him even to slaying! Shall such things be! no! gather tenfold stronger, And cry to heaven and earth – Such wrong shall be no longer!
Additional artwork information: The Hunted Slaves. Excerpt: “Longfellow’s poem ‘The Slave in the Dismal Swamp'(first published in 1842) and Ansdell’s painting are powerful indictments of the savage treatment which black slaves suffered at the hands of their masters in the Southern States of the USA. The poet’s description of the slave crouching ‘in the rank and tangled grass like a wild beast in his lair’ strikes an apt comparison with this painting, since Ansdell was primarily a painter of animals and hunting scenes. The concept of the ‘Noble Savage’, at one with nature and with higher moral standards than so-called ‘Civilised’ men, had a long currency in Western art and literature. When it was exhibited, Ansdell’s painting received an enthusiastic review in the Art Journal.”
The use of images of dogs in both the opening and final illustration of this poem is intentional. How do they reflect the movement and mood of this piece? Is it effective?
What role does the medium of each illustration play in your answer?
What is the subject referred to with “footsteps,” “wills,” and “land?” What larger ideas do each of those words represent?
How is the poem different, if it is, from your expectations when you read the title? On whom is the blessing called?
Scene I. – A large room in a country home. Mrs. Nevers seated, engaged in sewing. – Margaret standing by an open window, shaded with grape vines and honeysuckles. A bird cage containing several birds, hangs near. Margaret (after watching the motions f the mother-bird for some time.)
Margaret. There, now! – there you go again! you little foolish thing, you! Why, what is the matter with you? I should be ashamed of myself! I should so! Hav’nt we bought the prettiest cage in the world for you? Hav’nt you enough to eat, and the best that could be had, for love or money – sponge cake, loaf sugar, and all sorts of seed? Did’nt father put up a little nest for you with his own hands; and hav’nt I watched over you, you little ungrateful thing? – till the eggs they put there had all turned to birds – little live birds, no bigger than grasshoppers, and so noisy, ah, you can’t think? Just look at the beautiful clear water there – and the clean white sand. Where do you think you could find such water as that, or such a pretty glass dish – or such beautiful bright sand, if we were to take you at your word, and let you out with that little nest full of young ones, to shift for yourselves, hey? [The door opens, and Mr. Nevers enters.]
Mar. O father, I’m so glad you’ve come! What do you think is the matter of poor little birdy? [The father looks down among the grass and shrubbery, and up into the top branches, and then into the cage – the countenance of Margaret growing more and more perplexed, and more sorrowful every moment.] Mar. Well, father – what is it? Does it see anything? Mr. N. No, my love – nothing to frighten her; but where is the father-bird? Mar. He’s in the other cage. He made such a to-do when the little birds began to chipper this morning, that I was obliged to let him out; and brother Bobby he frightened him into the other cage, and carried him off. Mr. N. Was that right, my love? Mar. Why not father? He wouldn’t be quiet here, you know, and what was I to do? Mr. N. But, Moggy, dear – those little birds may want their father to help feed them; the poor mother bird may want him to help take care of them – or to sing to her. Mar. Or perhaps show them how to fly, father? Mr. N. Yes, dear. And to separate them just now – how would you like to have me carried off, and put into another house, leaving nobody at home but your mother to watch over you and the rest of my little birds? [Margaret muses a few moments, and then returns to the original subject.] Mar. But, father, what can be the matter with the poor thing? – you see how she keeps flying about, and the little ones trying to follow her – and tumbling upon their noses – and toddling about is if they were tipsy, and could’nt see straight. Mr. N. I am afraid she is getting discontented. Mar. Discontented! how can that be, Father? Has’nt she her little ones about her, and every thing on earth she can wish? And then, you know, she never used to be so before? Mr. N. When her mate was with her, perhaps. Mar. Yes, father – and yet, now I think of it, the moment these little wretches began to pee-peep, and tumble about so funny, the father and the mother both began to fly about the cage, as if they were crazy. What can be the reason? The water, you see, is cool and clear; the sand all bright: they are out in the open air, with all the green leaves blowing about them; their cage has been scoured with soap and sand, the fountain filled, and the seed-box – and – and – I declare, I cannot think what ails them! Mr. N. My love – may it not be the very things you speak of, things which you think ought to make them happy, are the very cause of all the trouble you see? The father and mother are separated! How can they teach their young to fly in that cage? How teach them to provide for themselves? Mar. But father – dear father -! [laying her little hand upon the spring of the cage door] dear father, would you?
Mr. N. And why not, my dear child? [He stoops and kisses her.] Why not? Mar. I was only thinking, father. If I should let them out, who will feed them? Mr. N. Who feeds the young ravens, dear? Who feeds the ten thousand little birds that are flying about us now? Mar. True, father; but they have never been imprisoned, you know, and have already learned to take care of themselves! Mrs. N. [looking up and smiling,] Worthy of profound consideration, my dear – I admit your plea, but have a care, lest you over-rate the danger and the difficulty in your unwillingness to part with your beautiful little birds. Mar. Father – [she throws open the door of the cage.]
Mr. N. Stay, my child? What you do must be done thoughtfully, conscientiously, so that you may be satisfied with yourself hereafter, when it is all over. Shut the door a moment, and allow me to hear all your objections. Mar. I was thinking, father, about the cold rains, and the long winters, and how the poor birds that have been so long confined would never be able to find a place to sleep in, or water to wash in, or seeds for their little ones. Mr. N. In our climate, my love, the winters are very short: and the rainy season itself does not drive the birds away; and then you know birds always follow the sun – if our climate is too cold for them, they have only to go farther south. But in a word, my love, you are to do as you would be done by. As you would not like to have me separated from your mother and you; as you would not like to be imprisoned for life, though your cage were crammed with loaf sugar and sponge cake – as you – – Mar. That’ll do, father! That’s enough! Brother Bobby! Hither, Bobby! Bring the little cage with you – there’s a dear.
Scene II. – Evening, Mrs. Nevers and Margaret seated – Enter Mr. N speaking loud as he comes forward. Mr. N. The ungrateful hussey! [1] What! After all that we have done for her; given her the best room we could spare – feeding her from our own table – clothing her from our own wardrobe – giving her the handsomest and shrewdest fellow for a husband within twenty miles of us – allowing them to live together till a child is born; and now, because we have thought proper to send him away for a while, where he may earn his keep – now forsooth! We are to find my lady discontented with her situation.
Mar. Dear father! Mrs. N. – Hush, child! Mr. N. – Ay, discontented – that’s the word – actually dissatisfied with her condition! The jade! – with the best of everything to make her happy; confits and luxuries she could never dream of obtaining were she free tomorrow – and always contented till now. Mar. -And what does she complain of, Father? Mr. N. – Why, my dear child, the unreasonable thing complains just because we have sent her husband away to the other plantation for a few months: he was getting idle here, and might have grown discontented, too, if we had not packed him off. And then instead of being happier, and more thankful – more thankful to her Heavenly Father, for the gift of a man child, Martha tells me that she has just found her crying over it, calling it a little slave, and wishing the Lord would take it away from her – the ungrateful wench! When the death of that child would be two hundred dollars out of my pocket, every cent of it! [2]
The Slave Market, Atlanta, Georgia, 1864.
Mrs. N. – After all we have done for her, too! Mr. N. – I declare I have no patience with that jade! Mar. Father – dear father! Mr. N. – Be quiet, Moggy, don’t teaze me now. Mar. – But father – [she draws her father to the window and points to the cage which still hangs there with the door wide open. He understands her and blushes – then speaks confusedly.] Dear father! Do you see that cage? Mr. N. – There go, be quiet, you are a child now, and must not talk about such matters until you have grown older. Mar. – Why not, father? Mr. N. – Why not! – Why, bless your little heart! – Suppose I were silly enough to open my doors and turn the poor thing adrift with her child at her breast – what would become of her? Who would take care of her? – who feed her? Mar. – Who feeds the young ravens, father? Who takes care of all the white mothers, and the white babies we see? Mr. N. – Yes, child – but then – I know what you are thinking of; but then – there’s a mighty difference, let me tell you, between a slave mother and a white mother – between a slave child and a white child. Mar. – Yes, father. Mr. N. – Don’t interrupt me: you drive every thing out of my head. What was I going to say? – Oh – ah! that in our long winters and cold rains, these poor things who have been brought up in our houses, and who know nothing about the anxieties of life, and have never learned to take care of themselves – and – a- a- Mar. – Yes, father; but could’nt they follow the sun, too? Or go farther south? Mr. N. – And why not be happy here? Mar. – But, father – dear father? How can they teach their little ones to fly in a cage? Mrs. N. – Child, you are getting troublesome! Mar. – And how teach their young to provide for themselves, father! Mr. N. – Put the little imp to bed, directly – do you hear! Mar. – Good night, father! Good night, mother – Do AS YOU WOULD BE DONE BY!
Fielder, Brigitte Nicole. Animal Humanism: Race, Species, and Affective Kinship in Nineteenth-Century Abolitionism. American Quarterly 65, no. 3 (Sept 2013), 487-514. The relationship between animal texts and anti-slavery activism, excerpts follow:
“Children’s literature against animal cruelty and children’s abolitionist literature are related both historically, through the overlapping social movements for abolitionism and animal welfare in the United States and England, and generically, in their shared sentimental approaches to evoking readerly sympathy.17 Before the animal welfare movement reached full speed in the late nineteenth century, the similarities of abolitionist and animal welfare rhetorics were visible in antebellum texts that emphasized the relation between how people treat animals and how they might treat other people.”
“The idea that certain kinds of animals ought not to be kept captive abounds in Northern antebellum children’s literature, and the similarities between abolitionist and anti–animal captivity stories make [these] texts … look very much like other abolitionist writing. While these poems might very well be read as animal welfare literature, they have been commonly regarded as abolitionist texts.26 The animals in these poems stand in for, or appear interchangeable with, enslaved people: their condition of captivity alludes to the similar condition of enslaved African Americans in the 1830s and 1840s … .”
Detail of “Great Horned Owl” by Louis Agassiz Fuertes. In Birds of America by T. Gilbert Pearson, 1923, Plate 5.
I.
The owl is a bird that flaps along
With a lonely loud halloo;
He has but one unceasing song,
To whit, to whit, to woo:
In dusky light he takes his flight,
The twilight dim is the time for him,
And when the midnight scowls,--
'Tis then he silently prowls,
And hunts the mice and moles.
II.
A lonely owl once built her nest
In the hole of a hollow tree,
And she with a fine young brood was blest
As ever owl could be.
She loved her young, and as they clung
Beneath her downy wing,
She o'er them oft, on a branch aloft,
As they reposed below,
Would shout and sing, while the woods would ring,
To whit, to whit, to woo:
III.
A boy came by that hollow tree,
With a fierce and wild halloo;
And this the birds, all startled heard,
And answered, to whit, to woo.
As the old bird shrieked, the young ones squeaked;
"Oh ho!" said the boy,
In a frantic joy,
"An owl is the bird for me,
And here are its young ones three."
The with eager look,
He that bird's nest took;
While plaintive and low,
Rose a note of wo
From the owl in its hollow tree. [1]
To whit, to whit, to woo:
Original image heading “The Old Owl”
IV.
That boy now took his victims home,
And put them in a cage;
And cooped up there,
In their despair,
They bit and scratched in rage;
They caught his fingers once or twice,
And made him scream with pain;
And then he vowed,
In curses loud,
That they should all be slain.
He tied them to a stake, and got
An iron pin, and made it hot,
To burn out their young eyes.
"Ha, ha!" said he, "you'll not bite me,
You'll not bite me again:"
Then in the sky
A wing flapped by
That seemed to stop his breath;
'Twas the old owl, with a heavy scowl,
Lamenting her young ones' death--
To whit, to whit, to woo:
V.
That boy grew up--became a man,
A cruel man was he,
His heart had grown as hard as stone,
Which none but God could see.
One dreary night,
In the wan moonlight,
Beneath that hollow tree
He vengeful stood, to spill the blood
Of a hated enemy.
With a furious blow, he laid him low,
Then plunged his knife
To take his life,
Deep to its haft,
And wildly laughed,--
"You will not again plague me."
But yet as he knelt
O'er that foe, he felt
A shudder that quailed all his blood's full glow;
For oh, he heard,
On the tree that bird,
The same old owl, o'er that murder foul,
Cry, whit, to whit, to woo.
VI.
He fled--the owl's reproaching cry
Still ringing in his ears;
But ah, 'twas vain for the wretch to fly,
So loaded with guilt and fears.
He quick was caught,
And to justice brought,
And soon in prison lies.
And oh, while there,
In his deep despair,
In lonely tears and sighs,
He thought of the iron cage!
And he thought of the cruel rage!!
And the red-hot pin, that he once thrust in,
To burn out the young bird's eyes.
Condemned to die--'twas his destiny
To die on that hollow tree,
And there as he hung,
And there as he swung
In the night-wind to and fro,
That vengeful bird
Was often heard,
When scarcely a breath the forest stirred,
In screamings high,
All the night to cry,
To whit, to whit, to woo.To whit, to whit, to woo.
SAMUEL GRISWOLD GOODRICH, “THE OLD OWL,” ROBERT MERRY’S MUSEUM 5, NO. 3 (MARCH 1843): 83-84.
[1] The image of the owl that accompanies this poem suggests that the author imagines a Great Horned Owl. These owls typically nest in “trees such as cottonwood, juniper, beech, pine, and others.” (All About Birds)
“Mottled Owl.” From Nest and Eggs of Birds of the United States, Illustrated by Thomas G. Gentry, 1882, Plate XXXIII.
Contexts
This poem—and many texts like it—express the common nineteenth-century belief that boys were more likely than girls to engage in acts of animal cruelty. “The Old Owl” also mirrors the continuing belief that (as Brigitte Fielder comments), “animal cruelty . . . might easily slip into violence toward humans” (493). When this poem was published, neither the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) nor the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the earliest U.S.-based animal- and child-protection organizations, had yet been founded. Coalescing in 1866 and 1875 respectively, many activists worked on establishing both organizations. Known as “The Great Meddler,” New Yorker Henry Bergh was inspired to found the ASPCA after he witnessed a carriage driver beating a horse that had fallen in the street. Bergh modeled the organization after the UK’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which was founded in 1840. Among his actions was creating a “Declaration of the Rights of Animals” that he modeled on the United States Declaration of Independence.
Kilcup, Karen L. Stronger, Truer, Bolder: American Children’s Writing, Nature, and the Environment. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2021. Chapter two discusses the poem; chapter three briefly discusses the interlocking history of animal welfare and child welfare movements.
Pedagogy
Claudia Khourey-Bowers at Kent State University has an extensive website focusing on teaching methods on Animal Rights and Welfare. This site is hosted by Teach the Earth, a site managed by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s website, allaboutbirds.org, has among the best resources for teaching and learning about birds, with information on habitat, migration, feeding, life history, and sounds. It has a dedicated page for K-12 education on Teaching Bird ID.
The National Humane Education Society has a site devoted to Animal Welfare . . . in Schools! This site has numerous links to materials for teachers. The NHES offers free “Kindness in the Classroom” humane education presentations to schools for K-5 grades.
PETA sponsors TeachKind, led by “former classroom teachers, here to help schools, educators, and parents promote compassion for animals through free lessons, virtual classroom presentations, materials, advice, online resources, and more.”
Contemporary Connections
“The Old Owl” depicts cruelty in terms that most readers today will find shockingly explicit. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) uses some graphic images on its website to convey many instances of animal cruelty. It investigates such issues as factory farming and the use of animals in medical experiments. The organization has formed an activist movement for people 24 or younger, Students Opposing Speciesism.
