Author Helen Dean Fish on Making Four and Twenty Blackbirds
And so, with Robert Lawson's invaluable support I have put these blackbirds into a pie before they have flown away forever, with the hope that when the pie is opened they will sing both lustily and sweetly for American children -- Helen Dean Fish, "Foreword" to Four and Twenty Blackbirds: Old Nursery Rhymes
As the above quote suggests, the author/editor of Four and Twenty Blackbirds viewed the work as something more than just a children's book. In detailing her efforts to compile this collection of the non-Mother Goose rhymes and jingles that she loved as a child, Helen Dean Fish establishes herself as a one-woman Brother's Grimm.
By seeking out old texts, mining "the memories of older people," and comparing "literally hundreds of variants" of certain songs or stories, Fish gave us a book of 24 rhymes (or "blackbirds") that "have possibly been loved as genuinely as the shorter and more familiar Mother Goose Melodies" but are "in danger of being soon forgotten and lost forever." Fish was so committed to this historic preservation that she included music for several of the songs on the last five pages of the book.
As a student of history and lover of literature, I have to say that I appreciate Fish's tremendous effort; the "Caldecott Collector" and blogger in me feels a bond with her over our similar missions. As a writer, I also have to admire her confidence when she makes statements like this one: "The value of these old songs and rhymes is not likely to be questioned, I think, by anyone who has seen children enjoy them." Even if I thought that about my work, I doubt that I would ever have the self-assurance to say it, much less to write it.
You just don't see that type of conviction every day, and at least in terms of the preservation of U.S. oral history, it's warranted. The nursery rhymes in this book are probably obscure to most readers; when I purchased my first copy of the book several years ago, I was shocked that aside from "The Little Red Hen," I only knew the title entry (which, surprisingly, does not even have its own "chapter" in the book, instead just being tagged to the end of the Foreword). I was a little familiar with "Frog Went A-Courting," but only because the 1956 Caldecott winner by Feodor Rojankovsky (author, John Langstaff). The remaining titles -- including "The Old Gray Goose," "Old Mother Tabbyskins," and "Rufflecumtuffle" -- had me mystified. So, right away, it seemed, this was not the typical book of nursery rhymes, and I was excited to explore it.
Illustrator Robert Lawson Helps the Blackbirds Take Flight
Aside from the unique focus of the collection, the art, of course, is what makes this book stand out. Robert Lawson's green and black drawings are sometimes bold and dramatic, sometimes delicate and whimsical, and sometimes all of these and more. A perfect example of this is Lawson's illustration for "Little Dame Crump," about an old woman who uses a found penny to purchase a pig that is reluctant to follow her home:
Of course, while we might expect our two warriors to dominate the forefront, Lawson takes it a step further: Not only do the bugs outsize the tiny town in the background, but their size in comparison to the apple is as fanciful as their physical features are clearly delineated.
Lawson's attention to detail extends beyond the natural world to the fantastic, as ween in his drawings for "Come Hither" and "Rufflecumtuffle." The first of these shows a "good little boy" enjoying his horse, a reward that he received for learning his alphabet (after the house pets refused). There is s real sense of movement in the pose of the horse, and the feathers in the boy's cap seem to be blowing in the wind. The expression on his face, too, seems to be filled with awe; while literally this may be a reaction to the letters dancing around him, the picture seems to capture the idea that reading opens magical worlds.
Lawson creates another magical world for "Rufflecumtuffle," an elf who "longed to dance in the fairies' hall / For he knew he must outshine them all." The picture on the left shows a sketch of the title elf from the Table of Contents, while the picture on the right shows his three brothers heading over to the fairy hall intending to mock him:
As it happens, the faces of our studious "good little boy" and dancing elf are only two of the countless remarkable facial expressions that Lawson creates for both people and animals, giving both major and minor characters a palpable personality and adding interest to the text:
My favorite of these expressions is on "Little Ren Hen." The tale teaches the value of hard work: Goose, duck, dog, cat, mouse, rat all refuse to help our heroine plant, tend, and reap the wheat, wanting only to eat the result. In the end, they rightfully lose out to the industrious hen's chick's, makin g this a very traditional story with a strong, traditional moral. Our heroine should feel content and satisfied, if not a little proud.
However, taking a look at the two depictions of our title character, we don't get a sense that she is whistling while she works. In the picture on the left, she almost seems to be spitting the wheat out, while in the one on the right, you can feel the weight of the sack, which we can only imagine would not seem quite as heavy to Dog or Cat. The feature that really stands out, though, is her face. Here, Lawson uses a natural feather pattern to accentuate her sharp eyes, and we can feel her frustration:
These depictions of the Little Red Hen are also two great examples of how some of the smaller art scattered throughout the book adds to the experience of the text. One of my favorite examples of this is the sketch of the idyllic little town that opens the "Merry Green Fields of England":
Reflections on Four and Twenty Blackbirds
Perhaps the "feet in the air" poses of the two animals were meant to be humorous and lighten the mood of the accompanying text. In "The Old Gray Goose," death is discussed rather cavalierly: Upon finding the dead goose, the singer simply plans to bury the animal in the morning and only somewhat laments the lack of goose eggs to eat in the future. By contrast, "Jim Findley's Pig" is much darker. After finding the pig dead in its sty, Finley's wife is so grief-stricken that she dies. All of this death pushes Finley to suicide: "The old man he died soon arter /He hung himself with his garter."
Darkness also pervades some of the cautionary tales. In "The Robber Kitten," the title character defiantly leaves his mother to "go and be a robber fierce/ And live in a dreary wood!" He immediately meets a rooster "And blew its head, with a pistol, off." Although the kitten eventually returns home after getting beaten by an older cat and a dog -- and seeing just how "bad" bad can be -- the "lesson" seems more rooted in a desire for self-preservation than an understanding of right and wrong. Lawson's artwork only underscores this darkness, as he chooses to illustrate the wayward kitten, not the enlightened one. His drawing for the tale is reminiscent of old cartoons and, as such may make them chuckle; however, for others it may seem a bit too graphic:
I have laughed quite a bit at the violence in old cartoons like Tom and Jerry or Coyote and Road Runner. However, while those characters have a million lives, the death here was real. This fact and other events in the story, including the kitten going on a drinking binge with the dog, made me take the tale perhaps too seriously.If the violence in some of these rhymes doesn't goes too far for you, some of the male chauvinism might. Given the fact that this book was written in 1938 and attempted to preserve an oral tradition dating back even further, I expected rhymes such as "Joe Dobson." In this jingle, a man brags he can outdo his wife with the house chores. She takes him up on the challenge, but he is overwhelmed by her everyday tasks and thwarted by the farm animals: "Joe suddenly confessed/He was convinced that wives could do/ The household business best." Honestly, aside from the last three lines, it's a rather funny rhyme and easily seems the stuff any sitcom in which people trade roles.
The same cannot be said for "Mr. Bourne and His Wife." In the rhyme, the title characters get into a fight over bread, toast, and butter. Their neighbor "overhear[s] the splutter" and attacks Mr. Bourne, saying, "'By my life, / You shall not beat your wife! / It is both a sin and a disgrace!'" In return, Mrs. Bourne attacks him and sends him running. The listener is cautioned not to poke "his snout in" if "married folks are flouting." My guess (hope?) is that the scenario is a humorous dramatization of more nuanced disagreements and interference -- and thankfully Lawson's illustration (below) supports this interpretation. However, given the language, it really just seems to advise looking the other way in cases of spousal abuse.
While I truly believe that it is important to read older works in the time period of their era and not be overly critical of them in light of modern standards and tastes, I do think that I would have great difficulty reading or singing many of these rhymes to a child -- particularly one at a "nursery rhyme age." Just as I cannot change the time period in which these rhymes developed and were recorded, I also cannot change the time period in which I grew up and now live.
Still, I am glad that someone took the time to preserve these rhymes. Not only does it give us a sense of what life was like "back then," but it also gives us a new lens through which we can view our own cultural perspective. The book also proved a wonderful vehicle to experience the art of one of the great children's illustrators, Robert Lawson, who does more in two colors than many can accomplish with a full palette.
Thus, as the book's creator, Helen Dean Fish predicted, I am "not likely" to question "the value of these old songs and rhymes." However, for me at least, times have changed too much for children to "sing both lustily and sweetly" many of the songs in this book. Whether this legacy would be enough for Fish is a question that must remain unanswered.
No comments:
Post a Comment