Bradford Reporter

The First American Poetry—There are a few girls or boys in this country who have not heard the nursery rhyme sung by their mothers while rocking the cradle,

'Lull-a-by baby upon the tree top:
When the wind blows the cradle will rock:
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall:
And down will come baby and cradle and all.'

But how many of you know the origin of the simple lines? We have the following account from the Boston Historical Society.—

Shortly after our forefathers landed at Plymouth, Mass., a party were out in the field where the Indian women were picking strawberries. Several of these women or squaws, as they are called, had pappooses, that is babies, and having no cradles, they had them tied up in Indian fashion, and hung from the limbs of the surrounding trees. Sure enough, 'when the wind blew, these cradles would rock.' A young man of the party observing this, peeled off a piece of bark, and wrote the above lines, which were, it is believed, the first poetry written in America.—American Agriculturist.