Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
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For Blinken, see: Meir Blinken and Alan Blinken.
"Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" is a popular poem for children written by Denver journalist Eugene Field and published 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.
Its lyrical structure has availed itself to musicians: Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin the American pianist and composer wrote a piano setting, and musical versions have been recorded by the Simon Sisters (1964), by Donovan on his children's album H.M.S. Donovan (1971),[2] by Buffy Sainte-Marie who sang a version on Sesame Street in 1975, and on her album Sweet America (1976). and by The Doobie Brothers (1981).
[edit] References in other artistic works
- Disney made an eight-minute cartoon in 1938 which stylized the fishermen of the poem as three pajama-clad children playing among the stars. In 1971, Weston Woods based a cartoon on the poem.
- Canadian children's entertainer Fred Penner included a version on his 1992 album The Cat Came Back.
- The three smokestacks of the Lansing Board of Water & Light in Lansing, Michigan, are known locally as Wynken, Blynken and Nod after the poem.
- This poem is recited by Martha Wilson in the 1993 film Dennis The Menace.
- Shel Silverstein created a poem, "Ickle me, Pickle me, Tickle me too" who went for a ride in a flying shoe.
- In the episode "Opie the Birdman" of The Andy Griffith Show, Opie names three baby birds Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.
- Three of the original Dreadnoks in G.I. Joe are named Tom Winken (Torch), Richard Blinken-Smythe (Buzzer), and Harry Nod (Ripper).
- Cass Elliot recorded Winken', Blinken And Nod while with the group The Big 3.
- Tatiana Cameron sings it in her lullaby album A Chance to Dream.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Mabel Landrum's original sculpture was exhibited to critical acclaim at the Art Institute of Chicago, Torrey presented her sculpture to Denver Mayor Robert W. Speer who commissioned a marble version in 1918. A bronze copy dedicated on September 23 1938 in memory of Elizabeth Cameron Bailey is a fountain on the Green in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania.
- ^ Donovan recorded it again for his 2002 children's album Pied Piper.
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[edit] External links
- The Wellsboro, PA Chamber of Commerce - History of Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
- The Denver Park People - Wynken, Blynken & Nod Sculpture
- A Little Book of Western Verse
- Disney's Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
- Text of Wynken, Blynken and Nod with Maxfield Parrish illustration
- Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, Knox College's children's and young adult literary publication
- Books and Posters of Wynken, Blynken & Nod
- The Duel, aka The Gingham Dog and The Calico Cat hear song version of the poem
