Eugene Field

Human thought is like a monstrous pendulum: it keeps swinging from one extreme to the other. Within the compass of five generations we find the Puritan first an uncompromising believer in demonology and magic, and then a scoffer at everything involving the play of fancy.

Eugene Field (September 2, 1850 – November 4, 1895) was an American writer, most famous for his poetry for children and humorous essays.

Quotes

It always is the biggest fish you catch that gets away!

• Human thought is like a monstrous pendulum: it keeps swinging from one extreme to the other. Within the compass of five generations we find the Puritan first an uncompromising believer in demonology and magic, and then a scoffer at everything involving the play of fancy.
  • The Writings in Prose and Verse of Eugene Field: The love affairs of a Bibliomaniac (1896), Ch. IV : The Mania of Collecting Seizes Me, p. 44

A Little Book of Western Verse (1889)

• I feel a sort of yearnin' 'nd a chokin' in my throat
  When I think of Red Hoss Mountain 'nd of Casey's tabble dote!
  • Casey's Table d'Hôte, st. 1

• He could whip his weight in wildcats.
  • Modjesky as Cameel, st. 10

• The best of all physicians
  Is apple pie and cheese!
  • Apple Pie and Cheese, st. 5

• It always was the biggest fish I caught that got away.
  • Our Biggest Fish, st. 2

• When I demanded of my friend what viands he preferred,
  He quoth: "A large cold bottle, and a small hot bird!"
  • The Bottle and the Bird, st. 1

• Oh, you who've been a-fishing will indorse me
      when I say
  That it always is the biggest fish you catch that
      gets away!
  • Our Biggest Fish, st. 4

Love Songs of Childhood (1894)

• Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
  Sailed off in a wooden shoe—
  Sailed on a river of crystal light,
  Into a sea of dew.
  • Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, st. 1

• The little toy dog is covered with dust,
  But sturdy and stanch he stands;
  And the little toy soldier is red with rust,
  And his musket moulds in his hands.
  Time was when the little toy dog was new,
  And the soldier was passing fair;
  And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue
  Kissed them and put them there.
  • Little Boy Blue, st. 1

• The gingham dog and the calico cat
  Side by side on the table sat;
  'T was half-past twelve, and (what do you think!)
  Nor one nor t' other had slept a wink!
  The old Dutch clock and the Chinese plate
  Appeared to know as sure as fate
  There was going to be a terrible spat.

(I wasn't there; I simply state
What was told to me by the Chinese plate!)

• The Duel, st. 1

• The gingham dog went "Bow-wow-wow!"
  And the calico cat replied "Mee-ow!"
  The air was littered, an hour or so,
  With bits of gingham and calico.

• The Duel, st. 2

• Next morning, where the two had sat
  They found no trace of dog or cat;
  And some folks think unto this day
  That burglars stole that pair away!
  But the truth about the cat and pup
  Is this: they ate each other up!
  Now what do you really think of that!

(The old Dutch clock it told me so,
And that is how I came to know.)

• "The Duel", st. 4

• Father calls me William, sister calls me Will,
  Mother calls me Willie, but the fellers call me Bill!
  Mighty glad I ain't a girl—ruther be a boy,
  Without them sashes, curls, an' things that 's worn by Fauntleroy!
  Love to chawnk green apples an' go swimmin' in the lake—
  Hate to take the castor-ile they give for bellyache!
  'Most all the time, the whole year round, there ain't no flies on me,
  But jest 'fore Christmas I'm as good as I kin be!
  • Jest 'Fore Christmas, st. 1

Quotes about

• Like Mark Twain, Eugene Field was an ardent dissenter against the prevailing social order in private conversation, although not much of that dissent was found in his writings-nor in Twain's. Both of those men were born too soon, or perhaps were just naturally cautious of being combative in public. They were cast by Fate into a period which we know today as the era of rugged individualism-a nation marching behind a banner bearing the legend: "Self conquers all!" Meaning, of course, that it's up to you alone-a doctrine which practically everybody across the land took for granted, and one which hangs on in spite of its falsity. Yet Field and Twain occasionally exhibited signs of doubt and wrote satirical comment on American life. Field poked fun at the shallow culture of the Chicago pork packers, and Mark Twain indulged in brief outbursts of anarchistic protest. None of their onsets, however, was incisive enough to make the big financiers question their loyalty to the existing economic and social system.
  • Art Young: His Life and Times (1939)

External links

• Works by Eugene Field at Project Gutenberg
• Works of Eugene Field