Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
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| Missing image Wynken.jpg Statue of Wynken, Blynken, and Nod |
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| ©2004 courtesy Keri S. Hathaway | Washington Park, Denver, Colo. |
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod is a popular poem for children by Denver journalist Eugene Field. It was written on March 9, 1889.
The original title was Dutch Lullaby.
The poem is a fantasy bed-time story of three fishermen sailing and fishing in the stars. Their boat is a wooden shoe. The fishermen symbolize a sleepy child's blinking eyes and nodding head.
Inspired works
- Disney made an 8 minute cartoon in 1938 which stylized the fishermen of the poem as three pajama-clad children playing among the stars.
- There are two statues by Mabel Landrum Torrey commemorating the poem. A marble version is in Washington Park, Denver, Colorado. A bronze copy in a fountain is on the Green in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. The sculpture was commissioned by the mayor of Denver and was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago.
- Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin the American pianist and composer wrote a piano setting for Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.
- Donovan set "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" to music on his 1971 children's album H.M.S. Donovan. He recorded another version with the same melody for his 2002 children's album Pied Piper.
Links
- A Little Book of Western Verse (http://www.gutenberg.net/browse/BIBREC/BR9606.HTM)
- Disney's Wynken, Blynken, and Nod (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030988/)