Oliver Herford's "The Early Owl"

The Daily Poem

Goldberry Studios

Education For Kids, Arts, Kids & Family

4.6 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2024

⏱️ 3 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From a New York Times obituary of Oliver Herford (1860-1935): "His wit…was too original at first to go down with the very delectable highly respectable magazine editors of the Nineties. It was odd, unexpected, his own brand. It takes genius to write the best nonsense, which is often far more sensible than sense. Herford's, the result of care and polish, looked unforced.…Intelligent, thoughtful, well-bred, what with his animals and his children and his artistic simplicities, he was remote from the style of the best moderns. No violence, no obscenity, not even obscurity or that long-windedness which is the signet of the illustrious writer of today. An old-fashioned gentleman, a painstaking artist, whose work had edge, grace and distinction.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios.
0:04.1	I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Friday, May 31st, 2024.
0:09.1	Today's poem is by Oliver Hereford, a late Victorian early 20th century humorist
0:14.5	and writer of whimsical, lyrical poetry for children.
0:19.8	Today's poem is called The Early Owl, and it's part
0:24.1	cautionary tale about when you go to bed and when you wake up, and part philosophical meditation
0:31.0	upon the importance of perspective when you try and apply wise words, maxims, and time-old, time-honored proverbs to one's own life.
0:43.0	Here is the early owl.
0:47.4	An owl once lived in a hollow tree, and he was as wise as wise could be.
0:54.1	The branch of learning he didn't know could scarce on the
0:57.4	tree of knowledge grow. He knew the tree from branch to root, and an owl like that can afford to hoot.
1:05.1	And he hooted until, alas, one day he chanced to hear in a casual way, an insignificant little bird make use of a term he had never heard.
1:15.9	He was flying to bed in the dawning light when he heard her singing with all her might.
1:21.1	Hooray! Hurray for the early worm!
1:24.8	Dear me, said the owl, what a singular term! I would look it up if it weren't so late.
1:31.2	I must rise at dusk to investigate. Early to bed and early to rise makes an owl healthy and
1:38.2	stealthy and wise. So he slept like an honest owl all day and rose in the early twilight gray, and went to work in the dusky light to look for the early worm all night.
1:51.6	He searched the country for miles around, but the early worm was not to be found.
1:57.1	So he went to bed in the dawning light and looked for the worm again next night.
2:02.9	And again and again, and again, he sought and he sought, but all in vain,
2:10.3	till he must have looked for a year and a day for the early worm and the twilight gray.
2:16.2	At last, in despair, he gave up the search, and was heard to remark
	...

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