THERE was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very, very good,
But when she was bad she was horrid.
This popular nursery rhyme is unusual in having not just a famous author but also one who refused to be associated with it. Best known for his poem The Song of Hiawatha, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-82) was regarded in his day as the American Tennyson. Such was his fame and distinguished reputation that Longfellow always denied composing the childish verses. Once questioned by his friends on the subject, he angrily declared: ‘When I recall my juvenile poems and prose sketches I wish they were entirely forgotten about. However, they cling to one’s skirt with a terrible grasp.’
Eventually he admitted to having made up the rhyme when his young daughter petulantly refused to have her hair brushed. The poet’s second son, Ernest, later recalled: ‘It was whilst he was walking up and down with Edith, then a baby, in his arms that my father composed and sang to her the well-known lines. Many people think it is a Mother Goose rhyme, but this is the true origin and history.’ Ironically enough, this is now probably the best-known of all his poems.