Poems that pursue the horizon from past to present and poems created for NaPoWriMo 2017 |
I studied my tables over and over, and backward and forward too; But I couldn't remember six times nine and I didn't know what to do, Till sister told me not to plat with my doll, and not to bother my head. "If you call her 'Fifty-four' for a while, you'll learn it by heart," she said. So I took my favorite, Mary Ann (though I though 'twas a dreadful shame To give a perfectly lovely child such a perfectly horrid name), And I called her my dear little "Fifty-four" a hundred times till I knew The answer of six times nine as well as the answer of two times two. Next day Elizabeth Wigglesworth, who always acts so proud, Said "Six times nine is fifty-two" and I nearly laughed aloud! But I wished I hadn't when the teacher said, "Now, Dorothy, tell if you can." For I thought of my doll and - sakes alive!- I answered, "Mary Ann!" Anna Marie Pratt [18-?] From: The Home Book of Verse by Burton Egbert Stevenson, 1917, pg. 166 ******************************** Day 8 - "A Mortifying Mistake" reminds me of both my brother and I trying to learn our multiplication tables, reciting them over and over. I love the approach from the child's perspective by the poetess and especially like the unexpected twist at the end. I think this is such a fun and creative poem! I could not find much about the author but this site suggests she was a teacher: http://www.lehigh.edu/~dek7/SSAWW/writ19CenPrat.htm. |