There was a period in the late-19th through the mid-20th-centuries during which learning poetry by heart and then reciting it in class was part and parcel of the rote memorization that comprised a sizeable chunk of the elementary-school curriculum.
Longfellow's Paul Revere's Ride and The Village Blacksmith, Whittier's Barbara Frietchie, Whitman's O Captain! My Captain!, Kipling's If, Thayer's Casey at the Bat, Tennyson's The Charge of the Light Brigade—these are just a few examples from among the most popular poems taught to generations of U.S. schoolchildren as a way to train their minds, improve their public speaking, and inculcate patriotic and moral teachings.
The existence of a corpus of poems taught from coast to coast served to provide children with a shared cultural background. When one watches cartoons of the '30s and '40s, and references are made that would certainly stump children today and many adults as well, it's useful to recall that these would've been part of the shared storehouse of knowledge imparted, at least in part, by the memorization of poetry.
While not as enduring a poetic legacy as Longfellow's or Whitman's, James Whitcomb Riley's reputation in the late-19th century as the "people's poet" was built on vernacular poetry that was accessible to children and adults alike. Little Orphant Annie was one of his two best-known poems—the later soundalike comic strip by Harold Gray certainly took its name from it—and was, as with many of his other poems, didactic in nature.
Didacticism was a very strong strain of children's literature in the 19th century, with "proper," i.e., Protestant Christian, morals threaded more or less heavy-handedly throughout. This was true on both sides of the Atlantic. And there was little sugarcoating of the fates facing froward children. The didactic nature of the poetry made it a natural for the classroom, where the Duke of Wellington's apocryphal quote "The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton" underscored, in parents' and teachers' minds, the importance of primary education in the moral formation of children into adults.
Little Orphant Annie (1885) James Whitcomb Riley
Little Orphant Annie’s come to our house to stay, An’ wash the cups an’ saucers up, an’ brush the crumbs away, An’ shoo the chickens off the porch, an’ dust the hearth, an’ sweep, An’ make the fire, an’ bake the bread, an’ earn her board-an’-keep; An’ all us other childern, when the supper things is done, We set around the kitchen fire an’ has the mostest fun A-list’nin’ to the witch-tales ‘at Annie tells about, An’ the Gobble-uns ‘at gits you Ef you Don’t Watch Out!
Onc’t they was a little boy wouldn’t say his prayers,— So when he went to bed at night, away up stairs, His Mammy heerd him holler, an’ his Daddy heerd him bawl, An’ when they turn’t the kivvers down, he wasn’t there at all! An’ they seeked him in the rafter-room, an’ cubby-hole, an’ press, An’ seeked him up the chimbly-flue, an’ ever’wheres, I guess; But all they ever found was thist his pants an' roundabout-- An’ the Gobble-uns’ll git you Ef you Don’t Watch Out!
An’ one time a little girl ‘ud allus laugh an’ grin, An’ make fun of ever’one, an’ all her blood an’ kin; An’ onc’t, when they was “company,” an’ ole folks was there, She mocked ‘em an’ shocked ‘em, an’ said she didn’t care! An’ thist as she kicked her heels, an’ turn’t to run an’ hide, They was two great big Black Things a-standin’ by her side, An’ they snatched her through the ceilin’ ‘fore she knowed what she’s about! An’ the Gobble-uns’ll git you Ef you Don’t Watch Out!
An’ little Orphant Annie says when the blaze is blue, An’ the lamp-wick sputters, an’ the wind goes woo-oo! An’ you hear the crickets quit, an’ the moon is gray, An’ the lightnin’-bugs in dew is all squenched away,-- You better mind yer parents, an’ yer teachers fond an’ dear, An’ churish them ‘at loves you, an’ dry the orphant’s tear, An’ he’p the pore an’ needy ones ‘at clusters all about, Er the Gobble-uns’ll git you Ef you Don’t Watch Out!
Publicity material for the 1918 film version starring Colleen Moore in her first leading role.
