Hi,

This was a poem in my text-book. I don’t know why suddenly since I started my blog and started this standard feature of “My favorite poems” that I am remembering all my school poetry.

Now, this poem was remembered as a result of a prompt. Here is the prompt first.

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Now, I am surely not going to answer that question 🙂 and you may think what you like! 🙂

Well, coming back to this poem. I thought I just had to search for the poem but, first I did not remember the exact beginning and it took me hours (yes, you heard that hours!) to finally search the name of the poem and the poet. Secondly, The poem was not available on google. This was a shock for me because I thought the entire world was right at our fingertips. Also there is no comprehensive information on the poetess. The only information I found was basic:

Mildred  Howells 
Born   in Boston, Suffolk Co., MAmap
Daughter of and
Sister of and
[spouse(s) unknown]
[children unknown]
Died in Watertown, Middlesex Co., MA
 
I was sad that there was no more information but, call this remarkable, there was one thing in common between Mildred and me.
Our birthdate.

This poem was available only partially. That too, I pieced (yes, again you heard that right), the paragraphs to form the poem from a site which did not open. Now, if any one of you finds this poem in it’s entirety, I am going to be thrilled though I might also end up feeling stupid 🙂

All for the love of this poem & for Mildred. I found another beautiful poem by her. I will post it some other time.

Here is Kirkus review about this poem:

“It’s the old rhyme once known as “”Going Too Far”” about the woman whose passion for cleaning compels her to “”wash the pig after all his meals,”” scrub her doorstep “”into the ground”” and the weathervane off the steeple, and wash the village children “”so hard that in several cases/ She polished their features off their faces”” — until at last she is whisked off into the sky to polish the stars. Mildred Howells first published this playful elaboration on the then almost official stereotype in 1898, and without forcing the humor or caricaturing the setting Holdsworth’s soft gray illustrations are faithful to the styles and symbols (windmills, caps, wooden shoes) that defined Holland for children of her time.”

Wow! 1898? And found one image as below:

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The partial poem is as follows but, I am pretty sure there were some more lines to it.

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Going too far by Mildred Howells

A Woman who lived in Holland of old,

Polished her brass till it shone like gold,

She washed her pig after all it’s meals,

In spite of his energetic squeals.

She scrubbed her doorstep, into the ground,

And the children’s faces pink and round,

She washed so hard that in several cases,

She polished the features off their faces.

Until, to the rage of all the people,

she cleaned the weather-vane off the steeple.

As she looked at the sky one one summer’s night,

she thought that the stars shone out less bright.

That night a storm began to brew,

and a wind from the ocean blew and brew

till when she came to her door next day,

it whisked her up, and blew her away.

Up and up in the air so high,

that she vanished, at last, in the stormy sky.

Since then it’s said that each twinkling star

and the big white moon, shine brighter by far.

But the neighbours shake their heads in fear,

she may rub so hard they will disappear.

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Now, Wasn’t that a cute and funny poem?

I have finished searching but, would you like to try?

There might just be a surprise for you, if you do but, even if there isn’t, do it as a challenge and for the love of literature?

This post is written as a response to open-to-all prompt for the Project 365 program at We Post Daily.:) Keep looking,

Poornima

(Image Credit-Abebooks)