Wynken, Blynken and Nod (Dutch Lullabye)

by EUGENE FIELD (1850-1895)

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe—
Sailed on a river of crystal light,
Into a sea of dew.
“Where are you going, and what do you wish?”
The old moon asked the three.
“We have come to fish for the herring fish
That live in this beautiful sea;
Nets of silver and gold have we!”

Said Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.

The old moon laughed and sang a song,
As they rocked in the wooden shoe,
And the wind that sped them all night long
Ruffled the waves of dew.
The little stars were the herring fish
That lived in that beautiful sea—
“Now cast your nets wherever you wish—
Never afeard are we”;
So cried the stars to the fishermen three:

Said Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.

All night long their nets they threw
To the stars in the twinkling foam—
Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe,
Bringing the fishermen home;
‘T was all so pretty a sail it seemed
As if it could not be,
And some folks thought ‘t was a dream they’d dreamed
Of sailing that beautiful sea—
But I shall name you the fishermen three:

Said Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.

Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
Is a wee one’s trundle-bed.
So shut your eyes while mother sings
Of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
As you rock in the misty sea,
Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three:

Said Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.

Over time, Eugene Field became most well known for his children’s poems, which became beloved inclusions in storybooks and even more well known through illustrations by Maxfield Parrish. In his short life, Field also wrote many articles and other poems, both serious and in dialect. Field, reviews and short stories. He published a novel entitled “Only a Boy.” anonymously as it was risqu&eactue; for its time, dealing with a youth’s affair with a 30-year-old woman. At that time, such a novel would no doubt have irreparably tainted his status as a children’s author. It was credited to Field when re-published in the 1960s.

Eugene Field Contemporaries
James Whitcomb Riley
Robert Louis Stevenson
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Oscar Wilde