Wynken, Blynken, and Nod

By Eugene Field

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
  Sailed off in a wooden shoe—
Sailed on a river of crystal light,
  Into a sea of dew.
“Where are you going, and what do you wish?”
  The old moon asked the three.
“We have come to fish for the herring fish
  That live in this beautiful sea;
  Nets of silver and gold have we!”
                Said Wynken,
                Blynken,
                And Nod.

The old moon laughed and sang a song,
  As they rocked in the wooden shoe,
And the wind that sped them all night long
  Ruffled the waves of dew.
The little stars were the herring fish
  That lived in that beautiful sea—
“Now cast your nets wherever you wish—
  Never afeard are we”;
  So cried the stars to the fishermen three:
                Wynken,
                Blynken,
                And Nod.

All night long their nets they threw
  To the stars in the twinkling foam—
Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe,
  Bringing the fishermen home;
’Twas all so pretty a sail it seemed
  As if it could not be,
And some folks thought ’twas a dream they’d dreamed
  Of sailing that beautiful sea—
  But I shall name you the fishermen three:
                Wynken,
                Blynken,
                And Nod.

Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
  And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
  Is a wee one’s trundle-bed.
So shut your eyes while mother sings
  Of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
  As you rock in the misty sea,
  Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three:
                Wynken,
                Blynken,
                And Nod.

This text follows Poems of Childhood (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1904), as transcribed by Project Gutenberg, with the poem’s original indentation. Its wording matches the 1892 text in With Trumpet and Drum. We have changed the transcription’s double hyphens to dashes and left out an illustration caption. The line numbers on this page count every line of verse, including the refrain, and skip the blank lines between stanzas.

“Wynken, Blynken, and Nod” is a lullaby by Eugene Field, the Chicago newspaper columnist who became known as the “poet of childhood.” It was first printed in March 1889, and Field collected an early version, titled “Dutch Lullaby,” in A Little Book of Western Verse that year. In 48 lines, it tells of three fishermen who sail into the night sky in a wooden shoe, and it has been read, sung, and recorded at bedtime for more than a century.

Our reading is that the poem is a sleep spell disguised as an adventure story. Its rocking rhythm and repeated refrain are meant to lull a listener, and its last stanza reveals the trick: the three sailors were a sleepy child’s eyes and head all along, and the voyage is the dream the child is about to have.

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Summary · Background · Analysis and Themes · Form and Technique · Notable Lines · Themes · FAQ
Glossary · In Popular Culture · Related Poems

Summary

One night, three fishermen named Wynken, Blynken, and Nod sail off in a wooden shoe. They float down a river of crystal light into a sea of dew, and the old moon asks where they are going. They answer that they have come to fish for the herring that live in this beautiful sea.

The moon laughs and sings as the wind carries them along. The herring turn out to be the little stars, which call out that they are not afraid and invite the fishermen to cast their nets.

All night long, the three fish among the stars. Then, the shoe comes down from the sky and brings them home. The voyage was so lovely, the speaker says, that some people thought it was only a dream.

In the last stanza, the speaker explains the riddle. Wynken and Blynken are a child’s two little eyes, Nod is the child’s head, and the wooden shoe is the child’s trundle bed. If the child shuts those eyes while mother sings, the child will see the same wonderful sights.

Background

Eugene Field was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 2, 1850. After his mother died in 1856, he was raised in Amherst, Massachusetts, by a relative, Mary Field French, to whom he later dedicated A Little Book of Western Verse.

Field attended Williams College, Knox College, and the University of Missouri without taking a degree. He then turned to journalism, working for papers in St. Joseph, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Denver before joining the Chicago Daily News in 1883. There, he wrote a popular column called “Sharps and Flats.”

In the late 1880s, Field began writing a series of lullabies, which his friend and colleague Slason Thompson connected with his reading of old English ballads. According to Thompson’s biography, “Wynken, Blynken and Nod” was printed in March 1889, and Field took more than his usual pains over it. The date most often given is March 9, 1889.

The poem first appeared in book form as “Dutch Lullaby” in A Little Book of Western Verse (1889). That early text differs in small ways from the one printed here. The river is “misty” rather than “crystal,” for example, and the moon “sung” rather than “sang.”

Under its familiar title, the poem was collected in With Trumpet and Drum (1892), a book of verse for children, and later in Poems of Childhood (1904). Field died in Chicago on November 4, 1895, at the age of 45. By then, this poem and “Little Boy Blue” had made him one of the best-loved writers of children’s verse in America.

Analysis and Themes

The poem works on two levels at once. For a small child, it is a magical voyage among the stars. For the adult reading aloud, it is a carefully built tool for getting that child to sleep.

A Riddle Solved at Bedtime

For three stanzas, the fishermen seem to be real sailors in a fairy tale. Only in line 37 does the speaker reveal that “Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes, / And Nod is a little head.” The names suddenly make sense as winking, blinking, and nodding off.

The reveal turns the poem into an invitation. The child listening is not just hearing about the voyage but is being asked to take it, by closing those blinking eyes and letting the head nod.

The Sky as a Sea

Field blends the night sky and the ocean into one dreamlike setting. The river is made of light, the sea is made of dew, the stars are herring, and the fishermen cast their nets into “twinkling foam.” Nothing in this world is frightening, and even the fish are unafraid.

The moon plays the role of a kindly grown-up. It asks the travelers where they are going, then laughs and sings to them as they rock, much as a parent might sing beside a cradle.

Dream or Reality

The third stanza raises a gentle question. The sail was “so pretty” that it seemed it “could not be,” and “some folks thought ’twas a dream.” The speaker neither agrees nor argues and simply insists on naming the fishermen.

That light touch matters. The poem lets dreams feel as real as waking life, which is exactly the promise a lullaby makes to a child who is reluctant to go to sleep.

Field’s Dutch Coloring

The original title, “Dutch Lullaby,” explains the poem’s details. The wooden shoe recalls Dutch clogs, the herring recall the North Sea fisheries, and the names Wynken and Blynken have a Dutch flavor. Field liked to dress his lullabies in borrowed national costume, and he also wrote a “Norse Lullaby” and a “Japanese Lullaby.”

Form and Technique

The poem has four stanzas of 12 lines each. Each stanza has nine lines of story followed by the three-line refrain “Wynken, / Blynken, / And Nod,” set far to the right on the page so that the names fall away one by one, like a voice trailing off into sleep.

The rhythm alternates longer four-beat lines with shorter three-beat ones, and many feet are anapests, two light syllables followed by a stressed one. The effect is a rocking motion, as in “As they ROCKED in the WOOD-en SHOE,” that suits a song sung beside a cradle.

The rhyme scheme is regular. In each stanza, the first eight lines rhyme alternately, and the ninth line rhymes with the eighth, as in “three,” “sea,” and “we” in the first stanza. The repeated “sea” rhymes across stanzas help bind the poem together.

Field also builds variety into the refrain. The fishermen first announce their own names (“Said Wynken”), then the stars call to them, then the speaker names them, and finally the names belong to the sleeping child.

Notable Lines

Three passages are quoted more than any others.

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe—
Sailed on a river of crystal light,
Into a sea of dew.

Lines 1 to 4

The opening sets the scene in four quick lines. The improbable boat, the river of light, and the sea of dew tell a young listener at once that this will be a story where anything can happen.

The little stars were the herring fish
That lived in that beautiful sea—
“Now cast your nets wherever you wish—
Never afeard are we”;
So cried the stars to the fishermen three:

Lines 17 to 21

Here, the night sky becomes the sea. The stars are not distant or cold but playful creatures who welcome the fishermen’s nets.

Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
Is a wee one’s trundle-bed.

Lines 37 to 40

This is the poem’s turn. The fishermen, the boat, and the voyage are all translated back into a child getting ready for bed, and the fantasy becomes something the child can enter by falling asleep.

Themes

Four ideas run through the poem.

Sleep

The poem is designed to bring on sleep. Its refrain fades out, its rhythm rocks, and its final stanza gives a direct instruction: “So shut your eyes while mother sings.”

Dreams

The voyage is a dream, though the poem never quite says so. By framing the dream as a happy adventure, Field turns going to sleep into something to look forward to.

Imagination

The poem shows how a child’s imagination transforms ordinary things. A shoe becomes a boat, stars become fish, and a trundle bed becomes a vessel sailing the skies.

Childhood

The poem treats childhood as a time of wonder and safety. A watchful moon, friendly stars, and a mother singing nearby surround the three small travelers, and the shoe always brings them home.

Frequently Asked Questions

These are the questions readers most often ask about “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.”

What Is “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod” About?

It is a bedtime poem about three fishermen who sail into the night sky in a wooden shoe and fish for stars. In the final stanza, the speaker reveals that Wynken and Blynken are a child’s eyes, Nod is the child’s head, and the shoe is the child’s bed, so the voyage is really the dream of a child falling asleep.

Who Are Wynken, Blynken, and Nod?

They are the three fishermen of the poem, and they also stand for parts of a sleepy child. Wynken and Blynken are the two little eyes, which wink and blink as they close, and Nod is the little head, which nods as the child drifts off.

When Was “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod” Written?

Eugene Field wrote it in the late 1880s, and his biographer Slason Thompson says it was printed in March 1889. The date usually given is March 9, 1889. An early version appeared as “Dutch Lullaby” in A Little Book of Western Verse that year, and the poem was collected under its familiar title in With Trumpet and Drum in 1892.

Why Is It Called a Dutch Lullaby?

Field’s original title was “Dutch Lullaby.” The wooden shoe suggests the clogs associated with the Netherlands, the herring recall Dutch fishing, and the names have a Dutch sound. Field wrote several lullabies with a national flavor, including a “Norse Lullaby” and a “Japanese Lullaby.”

Has “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod” Been Set to Music?

Yes, many times. Ethelbert Nevin wrote an early setting, and Lucy Simon’s version, recorded by the Simon Sisters in 1964, became a popular folk song. The Doobie Brothers recorded it for the 1980 children’s album In Harmony, and many other singers have recorded it as a lullaby.

Glossary

The poem uses only a few unusual words.

• herring (line 7): A small, silvery fish caught in large numbers in the North Sea, long a staple of Dutch fishing.
• afeard (line 20): Afraid; an old or dialect form.
• ’twas (line 29): It was.
• wee (line 40): Little.
• trundle-bed (line 40): A low bed on small wheels that can be rolled under a larger bed when not in use, often used for children.
• that be (line 42): That exist; an old-fashioned use of “be” for “are.”

In Popular Culture

The poem has inspired songs, films, and sculpture. In 1938, Walt Disney released an animated short, Wynken, Blynken and Nod, in which the three fishermen are children in pajamas fishing among the stars. Weston Woods Studios released another animated version in 2007.

Lucy Simon’s musical setting, recorded by the Simon Sisters, reached No. 73 on the Billboard pop chart in 1964. The Doobie Brothers’ 1980 recording reached No. 76, and Donovan, the Irish Rovers, Roger Whittaker, and Fred Penner are among the many other artists who have recorded it.

In Denver’s Washington Park, a sculpture by Mabel Landrum Torrey shows the three in their wooden shoe, and a bronze copy was dedicated in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, in 1938. On television, Opie Taylor names his three pet birds Wynken, Blynken, and Nod in a 1963 episode of The Andy Griffith Show.

Related Poems

If “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod” charms you, these poems share its gentle, dreamlike world.

• Little Boy Blue by Eugene Field: Field’s other famous poem about childhood, a quiet elegy for a child told through his waiting toys.
• The Sugar-Plum Tree by Eugene Field: Another Field lullaby about a magical land a child reaches by falling asleep.
• The Owl and the Pussy-Cat by Edward Lear: Two unlikely sailors go to sea “in a beautiful pea-green boat” under the moon and stars.
• The Land of Nod by Robert Louis Stevenson: A child describes the dream country he travels to every night.
• Sweet and Low by Alfred Tennyson: A cradle song in which a mother sings her baby to sleep while the father sails home over the sea.