Seein Things, by Eugene Field

he original of this post is featured at Latter-day Homeachooling blog on October 4 2010

Since I was an adult convert, I didn’t have the comforting truths of the Gospel as a child.  I believed in creepy ghosts, monsters, the basement creatures,  and, oh, the things that went “bump” in the night. (shudder)  I remember being afraid of the dark, and the things I saw in the shadows…(shiver)….just last night, in fact.  *;-.)

As a child, I found this poem and thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever read. Still do. While I don’t believe children “see things” because they’ve been bad, I think it is a result of a child’s imagination over their insecurities of reality or what they can’t see.  This poem changed my life, my perspective~ the dark can be funny.

SEEIN' THINGS

by: Eugene Field (1850-1895)

AIN'T afraid uv snakes or toads, or bugs or worms or mice,
An' things 'at girls are skeered uv I think are awful nice!
I'm pretty brave I guess; an' yet I hate to go to bed,
For, when I'm tucked up warm an snug an' when my prayers are said,
Mother tells me "Happy Dreams" an' takes away the light,
An' leaves me lyin' all alone an' seein' things at night!

Sometimes they're in the corner, sometimes they're by the door,
Sometimes they're all a-standin' in the middle uv the floor;
Sometimes they are a-sittin' down, sometimes they're walkin' round
So softly and so creepy-like they never make a sound!

Sometimes they are as black as ink, an' other times they're white--
But color ain't no difference when you see things at night!
Once, when I licked a feller 'at had just moved on our street,
An' father sent me up to bed without a bite to eat,
I woke up in the dark an saw things standin' in a row,
A-lookin' at me cross-eyed an' p'intin' at me -- so!
Oh, my! I wuz so skeered 'at time I never slep' a mite--
It's almost alluz when I'm bad I see things at night!

Lucky thing I ain't a girl or I'd be skeered to death!
Bein' I'm a boy, I duck my head an' hold my breath.
An' I am, oh so sorry I'm a naughty boy, an' then
I promise to be better an' I say my prayers again!
Gran'ma tells me that's the only way to make it right
When a feller has been wicked an' sees things at night!

An' so when other naughty boys would coax me into sin,
I try to skwush the Tempter's voice 'at urges me within;
An' when they's pie for supper, or cakes 'at's big an' nice,
I want to -- but I do not pass my plate f'r them things twice
No, ruther let Starvation wipe me slowly out o' sight
Than I should keep a-livin' on an' seein' things at night!

 

Have you considered having your child write about what he or she thinks of the dark? 

What will we find out?

Teresa is a ‘fraidy cat who learned from an old Bill Cosby monologue about the music that keeps monsters away at night.  It goes like this…. “neh, neh, neh, neh, neh, neh, neeeehhh” repeated over and over.  It works.  She has not been eaten.  These days she is afraid of the Faulk monster that travels through rural central Arkansas.  You can find her singing her monster repelling music when she is walking the property at night and at Wockenflock Daze.