"Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" is a popular poem for children written by Denver journalist Eugene Field and published on March 9, 1889. The original title was Dutch Lullaby.

The poem is a fantasy bed-time story of three fishermen sailing and fishing in the stars. Their boat is a wooden shoe. The fishermen symbolize a sleepy child's blinking eyes and nodding head.

Its lyrical structure have recommended it to musicians: Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin the American pianist and composer wrote a piano setting, and musical versions have been recorded by the Simon Sisters (1964), by Donovan on his children's album H.M.S. Donovan (1971), by Buffy Sainte-Marie who sang a version on Sesame Street in 1975, and on her album Sweet America (1976). and by The Doobie Brothers (1981).

References in other artistic works

• Disney made an eight-minute cartoon in 1938 which stylized the fishermen of the poem as three pajama-clad children playing among the stars. In 1971, Weston Woods based a cartoon on the poem.
• Canadian children's entertainer Fred Penner included a version on his 1992 album The Cat Came Back.
• The three smokestacks of the Lansing Board of Water & Light in Lansing, Michigan, are known locally as Wynken, Blynken and Nod after the poem.
• This poem is recited by Martha Wilson in the 1993 film Dennis The Menace.
• Shel Silverstein created a poem, "Ickle me, Pickle me, Tickle me too" who went for a ride in a flying shoe.
• In the episode "Opie the Birdman" of The Andy Griffith Show, Opie names three baby birds Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.

Notes

External links

• The Wellsboro, PA Chamber of Commerce - History of Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
• The Denver Park People - Wynken, Blynken & Nod Sculpture
• A Little Book of Western Verse
• Disney's Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
• Text of Wynken, Blynken and Nod with Maxfield Parrish illustration
• Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, Knox College's children's and young adult literary publication
• Books and Posters of Wynken, Blynken & Nod
• The Duel, aka The Gingham Dog and The Calico Cat hear song version of the poem