Utica on the Map

Utica on the Map
Smack in the Center

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Wynken Blynken and Nod

At the bottom of Arlington Road in Utica this amazing boat--a play boat--caught my eye.

















And the beautiful lines of the old house it sits behind.   

      
I wondered who lived in the house, now and in the past, and what lucky children got to play on the boat. And all of it reminded me of a nursery rhyme which turned out to be about sailing to sea in a wooden shoe (not to mention sailing off to sleep), but came close enough to the spirit of the place and the things I might have imagined when I was a child--if I had a boat in my back yard.

Wynken Blynken and Nod

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe--
Sailed on a river of crystal light,
Into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going, and what do you wish?"
The old moon asked the three.
"We have come to fish for the herring fish
That live in this beautiful sea;
Nets of silver and gold have we!"
Said Wynken, Blynken, And Nod.

The old moon laughed and sang a song,
As they rocked in the wooden shoe,
And the wind that sped them all night long
Ruffled the waves of dew.
The little stars were the herring fish
That lived in that beautiful sea--
"Now cast your nets wherever you wish--
Never afeard are we";
So cried the stars to the fishermen three:
Wynken, Blynken, And Nod.

All night long their nets they threw
To the stars in the twinkling foam--
Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe,
Bringing the fishermen home;
'T was all so pretty a sail it seemed
As if it could not be,
And some folks thought 't was a dream they 'd dreamed
Of sailing that beautiful sea--
But I shall name you the fishermen three:
Wynken, Blynken, And Nod.

Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
Is a wee one's trundle-bed.
So shut your eyes while mother sings
Of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
As you rock in the misty sea,
Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three:
Wynken, Blynken, And Nod.























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