Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

There Was a Little Girl

There Was a Little Girl - fact Summary

Inspired by Childhood Observation

A brief nursery-style poem that captures a child's contradictory nature in a single quatrain: an endearing physical detail (a curl) and a paradoxical moral judgment that she is "very good indeed" only when good. The tone is playful and aphoristic, leaving interpretation open between affectionate portrait and ironic observation. The poem is believed to be drawn from Longfellow's own childhood memories or his observation of children.

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There was a little girl, Who had a little curl, Right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, She was very good indeed.

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