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Children’s poems are not all bright and happy-go-lucky. Sometimes they have to teach us about life and even death. These few that I have featured here surprised me a bit, but I loved them all the same. This first one is by Eugene Field. Those who have read a previous post know how I feel about him. I seem to like everything he wrote! This one is humorous despite its gloomy story. I’ll warn you that if you can’t stand a story about children dying, don’t read this.
The Little Peach
A little peach in the orchard grew,
A little peach of emerald hue;
Warmed by the sun and wet by the dew,
It grew.
One day, passing that orchard through,
That little peach dawned on the view
Of Johnny Jones and his sister Sue.
Them two.
Up at that peach a club they threw,
Down from the stern on which it grew
Fell that peach of emerald hue.
Mon Dieu!
John took a bite and Sue a chew,
And then the trouble began to brew,
Trouble the doctor couldn’t subdue.
Too True!
Under the turf where the daisies grew
They planted John and his sister Sue,
And their little souls to the angels flew,
Boo hoo!
What of that peach of the emerald hue,
Warmed by the sun, and wet by the dew?
Ah, well, its mission on earth is through.
Adieu!
Eugene Field
Here is a limerick. It is Unknown who the author is! I thought it was quite cute, although, once again, gloomy.
There was a Young Fellow Named Hall
There was a young fellow named Hall
Who fell in the spring in the fall.
‘Twould have been a sad thing
Had he died in the spring,
But he didn’t – he died in the fall.
Unknown
The next one ponders The Answers to life. Do the animals know?
The Answers
“When did the world begin and how?”
I asked a lamb, a goat, a cow:
“What’s it all about and why?”
I asked a hog as he went by:
“Where will the whole thing end and when?”
I asked a duck, a goose and a hen:
And I copied all the answers too,
A quack, a honk, an oink, a moo.
Robert Clairmont
What gloomy poems have stuck with you? I Felt A Funeral In My Brain by Emily Dickinson is one that I don’t think I will ever forget. She was really something! Tell us what you think in the comments!
