THE PLEASANTEST THING
Good Morning, Merry Sunshine!
What made you wake so soon?
You've scared the little stars away
And driven away the moon!
I saw you go to sleep last night
Before I left my playing;
How did you get way over there
And where have you been staying?
So went the cheerful greeting my mother gave me as a child each morning. It was a source
of happiness and security. When I grew up and became a mother, I carried on the
tradition with the same little rhyme, only substituting each child's name for Merry. I
always thought my mother made up that little poem, until the day I found it in a nursery
rhyme book. To my surprise, I discovered that the poem actually said "Merry Sunshine"
and that it was about the Sun! The memory of those childhood days was refreshed when I
was presented a bright yellow cup with musical notes and Merry Sunshine inscribed on the
side. The giver had no idea the significance of her thoughtful gift.
My Mother often sprinkled poetry into our day to day living, providing an unconscious model for her children. Each little poem, each story read and reread became part of us as we grew into adulthood and ultimately parenthood. It was a comfortable and easy thing for me as a mother to recite to my children the same poems I grew to love as a child. Many by Robert Louis Stevenson added to the happiness of my childhood and carried over to provide
meaning in the lives of my children. Today my grandchildren are becoming familiar with these poems as well. It is from my Mother that I learned to raise my vocal inflection to match the rhythm of the moving swing, as I push my grandchildren's swings, saying to them:

"How do you like to go up in the swing, Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it's the pleasantest thing That ever a child can do!"
"Bed in Summer" provided my mother, then me, and now my oldest daughter with a sweet but firm answer to our children who want to stay up later than appropriate:
"In winter I get up by night and dress by yellow candlelight.
In summer, quite the other way, I have to go to bed by day!
I have to go to bed and see the birds still hopping in the tree
And hear the grownup people's feet as they go past me in the street.
And does it not seem hard to you, when all the sky is clear and blue
And I would like so much to play, to have to go to bed by day?"
The use of poetry as a tool of parenting is a skill my mother used to perfection. It also enabled me to be a better mother, and now serves my grown daughters well. This parenting skill is a tradition that is passed on as our children grow and start families of their own. I recommend that we each take the opportunity to provide such meaningful traditions for our children and grandchildren. Such happy things as poems recited and stories read can do much to enhance the day to day learning we strive to provide for those we love.
And to paraphase Robert Louis Stevenson:
"Oh I do think it's the pleasantest thing that ever a parent can
do! "
Meredith Cowart - Nov. 1998
Poems fondly remembered from "A Child's Garden of Verses" by Robert Louis Stevenson