2 Eliza Lee Follen
[1787-1860]
Born Eliza Lee Cabot in Boston, Massachusetts in the year 1787, Eliza was the fifth child of an affluent Boston family. In her twenties, Eliza Lee Cabot met Charles Follen, a German political refugee, in a religious discussion group. They shortly married and had one son together in 1830.
During their early married life, Charles pursued an academic career, teaching briefly at Harvard until he was ousted for his anti-slavery views, while Eliza published works of fiction. Upon Charles’ early death in 1840, Eliza began writing and publishing avidly in order to financially support herself and her young son.
Alongside a biography of her husband, Eliza primarily wrote works for children: plays, short stories, and poetry books. As an activist, Follen actively battled against the common form of children’s verse at the time. She contended that works such as Mother Goose, though entertaining in their sing-song style, were harsh and morbid. She also recognized the discriminatory streak that underlay the time’s children’s verse, often speaking derogatorily of Native Americans in particular.
Follen’s works are appropriate for the study of early American motherhood as these songs were intended as an early link between mother and child, representing the spontaneous and joyous act of motherhood animated through songs and rhymes to young children. As such, Follen attempted to capture the beauty of sound as has always been common in children’s verse, intending for it to be shared between mother and preliterate child.
Each of the pieces below, including the preface, are pulled from one of Eliza Lee Follen’s works: New Nursery Songs for All Good Children published in 1832. The preface outlines her explicit intentions for the work and suggests the manner by which she would judge its success. Then, each of the three excerpted poems from the collection can be used to indicate elements of style, form, and content in Follen’s works.
PREFACE
It has been my object in writing the following little Songs for Little Boys and Girls, to endeavour to catch something of that good-humoured pleasantry, that musical nonsense, which makes Mother Goose so attractive to children of all ages. Indeed, I should not have thought of preparing a collection of new baby songs, if I had considered it possible to free that captivating work from its vulgarisms and other defects[1] without sacrificing its peculiar charms, or if I had met with any other book of this kind, adapted to the capacity, taste, and moral sense of children. So I have attempted to imitate the beauties, and, what is a far easier thing, to avoid the defects, of Mother Goose’s melodies. The little folks must decide whether the book is entertaining; the parents must judge whether it is unobjectionable. To parents in general — that all-responsible part of the community — this very humble offering is dedicated; but to those, more especially, whose good taste, just views, and encouraging words have aided and cheered me in my undertaking, I present my little volume; with the earnest hope that it will receive their approbation. If the children love to lisp my rhymes, while the parents find no fault in them, I ask no higher praise.
Eliza Lee Follen
1832
MARY AND THE BIRD.
“Dear little bird, will you live with me?
I’ll give you a cage, and your friend I’ll be.”
“I am sorry, my dear,
But I’d rather live here:
The skies they are fair,
And I love the fresh air;
The trees they are green,
And I sit like a queen
On a branch as it goes,
While the pleasant wind blows;
I have more on my table
To eat than I ‘m able,
For this very large wood
Gives me plenty of food.
But when you have read,
And your lesson is said,
Sit under a tree,
With your sewing, near me,
And this afternoon
I will sing you a tune.”
Eliza Lee Follen, 1832
BUTTERFLIES ARE PRETTY THINGS.
“Butterflies are pretty things,
Prettier than you or I;
See the colours on his wings,
Who would hurt a butterfly?
Softly, softly, girls and boys;
He’ll come near us by and bye
Here he is, don’t make a noise,
We’ll not hurt you, butterfly.”
Not to hurt a living thing,
Let all little children try;
See, again he ‘s on the wing;
Good-bye! pretty butterfly!
Eliza Lee Follen, 1832
THE POOR MAN.
The poor man is old,
He is hungry and cold,
Let us give him some bread to eat;
Let him come to the fire,
Let us build it up higher,
Let us give the poor man a warm seat.
The poor man is weak,
How pale is his cheek!
Perhaps he has met with some sorrow;
Let us give him a bed,
Where his poor weary head
May rest, and feel better to-morrow.
Eliza Lee Follen, 1832
- Here, when referencing "vulgarisms and other defects," Follen is referencing the implicit racism that often lay under the surface of childhood verse at this time. Often, the language and wording depicted indigenous Americans in harsh and brutish lights, suggesting a level of superiority in the European race. This is something with which Follen took offense. ↵