A Poem for a Little Guy

Our Little Guy got the sweetest look on his face today when I read Eugene Field’s (1850-1895) poem, The Night Wind, to him.  You might like it, too:

Have you ever heard the wind go “Yooooo”?
   ‘T is a pitiful sound to hear!
It seems to chill you through and through
   With a strange and speechless fear.
‘T is the voice of the night that broods outside
   When folk should be asleep,
And many and many ‘s the time I ‘ve cried
To the darkness brooding far and wide
   Over the land and the deep:
“Whom do you want, O lonely night,
   That you wail the long hours through?”
And the night would say in its ghostly way:

“Yoooooooo!          Yoooooooo!        Yoooooooo!”

My mother told me long ago
(When I was a little tad)
That when the night went wailing so,
   Somebody had been bad;
And then, when I was snug in bed,
   Whither I had been sent,
With the blankets pulled up round my head,
I’d think of what my mother ‘d said,   
And wonder what boy she meant!
And “Who’s been bad to-day?”
I’d ask    Of the wind that hoarsely blew,
And the voice would say in its meaningful way:

“Yoooooooo!                Yoooooooo!                Yoooooooo!”

That this was true I must allow—   
You’ll not believe it, though!
Yes, though I’m quite a model now,   
I was not always so.
And if you doubt what things I say,   
Suppose you make the test;
Suppose, when you’ve been bad some day
And up to bed are sent away   
From mother and the rest—
Suppose you ask, “Who has been bad?”   
And then you’ll hear what’s true;
For the wind will moan in its ruefullest tone: 

“Yoooooooo!                Yoooooooo!                Yoooooooo!”

One of my favorite things about schooling our kids is being the first person to introduce them to old poetry, art, hymns, or whatever else is cool and old at the same time.

I love the looks on their faces when they see their first Leonardo da Vinci sketch or hear their first Eugene Field poem.  And I’m glad this little guy “got it” when I read the above poem to him.

“The wind is saying ‘You,’ ” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

“No, it’s saying, ‘You,'” I answered.