The poem “Little Orphant Annie,” is a dastardly one, but I have a personal connection to it from my childhood.
As a boy, my family’s bathtub/shower was an old, rotted thing that had a hole right under the water spout. Inside the hole was stuffed a plastic cup. It had been used, during times of great innovation, to fill the hole up as to not reveal the darkness that lay beyond. I always assumed it was probably a direct line to our basement–or the abyss. At that, I would stare for the length of time it took me to wash myself. That’s all I could focus on.
And worry I did, because inside that hole existed the goblins.
Of course, the goblins! Because they were very real and present when I was a child. I guess if you happened to be a terrible kid, they would come and kidnap you. Then, they would take you to a place where you would be butchered and cooked over a blazing fire. That’s just according to folklore, from what I understand. Luckily I was a pretty good kid and never encountered them.
But, who were these goblins, you ask? Well, they were the goblins of legend and song. More accurately, they were the ones from the poem “Little Orphant Annie.” These goblins kidnap and punish two terrible children in two consecutive stanzas. I tell you, if your mother sang this poem to you as a child, you probably still remember the sleepless nights you spent staring at the ceiling. The goblins of your imagination lay just out of reach.
The following poem is the one I heard from my childhood, and these are the most salient parts. For some reason, there are many dark children’s poems. But, for this one, there is more to it, but it’s just easier to publish what I recall as being the most unnecessarily terrifying parts for a child to hear.
“Little Orphant Annie” by James Whitcomb Riley
…
Onc’t they was a little boy wouldn’t say his prayers,–
So when he went to bed at night, away up stairs,
His Mammy heerd him holler, an’ his Daddy heerd him bawl,
An’ when they turn’t the kivvers down, he wasn’t there at all!
An’ they seeked him in the rafter-room, an’ cubby-hole, an’ press,
An’ seeked him up the chimbly-flue, an’ ever’wheres, I guess;
But all they ever found was thist his pants an’ roundabout–
An’ the Gobble-uns’ll git you
Ef you
Don’t
Watch
Out!
An’ one time a little girl ‘ud allus laugh an’ grin,
An’ make fun of ever’one, an’ all her blood an’ kin;
An’ onc’t, when they was “company,” an’ ole folks was there,
She mocked ’em an’ shocked ’em, an’ said she didn’t care!
An’ thist as she kicked her heels, an’ turn’t to run an’ hide,
They was two great big Black Things a-standin’ by her side,
An’ they snatched her through the ceilin’ ‘fore she knowed what she’s about!
An’ the Gobble-uns’ll git you
Ef you
Don’t
Watch
Out!
…
