



Produced by David Widger from page images generously
provided by the Internet Archive







MOTHER GOOSE FOR GROWN FOLKS

BY MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY

Illustrated By Augustus Hoppin

Boston

Houghton, Mifflin And Company

1883

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INTRODUCTORY.


|Somewhere in that uncertain "long ago,"

Whose dim and vague chronology is all

That elfin tales or nursery fables know,

Rose a rare spirit,--keen, and quick, and quaint,--

          Whom by the title, whether fact or feint,

               Mythic or real, Mother Goose we call.



          Of Momus and Minerva sprang the birth

          That gave the laughing oracle to earth:

          A brimming bowl she bears, that, frothing

                    high

          With sparkling nonsense, seemeth non-

                    sense all;

          Till, the bright, floating syllabub blown by,

          Lo, in its ruby splendor doth upshine

          The crimson radiance of Olympian wine

               By Pallas poured, in Jove's own banquet-

                    hall.



          The world was but a baby when she came;

          So to her songs it listened, and her name

          Grew to a word of power, her voice a spell

          With charm to soothe its infant wearying

                    well.



          But, in a later and maturer age,

          Developed to a dignity more sage,

          Having its Shakspeares and its Words-

                    worths now,

          Its Southeys and its Tennysons, to wear

          A halo on the high and lordly brow,

          Or poet-laurels in the waving hair;

