We often don’t realize where nursery rhymes, some dating back centuries, came from. Some have evolved over centuries, bringing a whole new version to modern children. Others have remained tried and true since inception.
There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead
When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid
Many curly-haired troublesome children heard this short-and-sweet rhyme growing up — but perhaps didn’t know about its relatively prestigious origins. Famed American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, known for works like “Paul Revere’s Ride,” wrote this goofy little verse about his own daughter. His son Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow wrote in his book, Random Memories, that “it was while walking up and down with his second daughter, then a baby in his arms, that my father composed and sang to her the well-known lines.”