Who Wrote World's Shortest Poem?

Article written by Eric Shackle

The world's shortest poem, countless websites tell us, is this couplet:

Fleas
Adam
Had 'em.

That claim is itself debatable, but even more intriguing is: Who wrote it? Most websites either
offer no author's name, or credit it to that prolific writer, Anon.

The usually well-informed Oxford Dictionary of Quotations says that the shortest poem in the
English language (by an unknown poet) is titled On the Antiquity of Microbes and contains
only this much Adam/Had 'em.

Other authorities claim the couplet was the work of that world-famous and talented U.S.
humorist/poet Ogden Nash (1902-1971), who wrote Parsley/Is gharsley. and other immortal
gems:

[Poems deleted at request of copyright owner.]

Ogden Nash might well have written that shortest couplet, we thought.

Next, in a discussion forum, we found an email dated February 23, 2001 from someone named
David, who said "I prefer ... 'Fleas' by Shel Silverstein, which goes as follows: Adam had 'em."

To our shame, we had never heard of Shel, but when we Googled his name, we found plenty
about him - which has tempted us to read some of his work. He was a popular and versatile
writer of books for children and adults, and a talented musician and songwriter.

"If you saw Shel coming up a New York sidewalk with his old mailman's bag stuffed full of
songs wearing a worn-out pair of cowboy boots and faded Can't-Bust-'Em jeans, you'd never
guess that he'd written dozens of hit records and sold over eighteen million children's books."
Fred Koller.

Shel's nephew, Mitch Myers, wrote this tribute: "Sheldon Alan Silverstein was a renaissance
man. The author of Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show's 1972 hit, The Cover of the Rolling Stone,
he was a songwriter, singer, playwright, cartoonist, poet and author whose work touched
millions. Silverstein died of heart failure at his home in Key West, Florida, sometime over the
weekend of May 8th.1999. He was sixty-eight."

Particularly interesting to an Australian was that Shel composed the music for the 1970 movie
Ned Kelly, one of many films about our notorious outlaw. But he didn't compose the couplet
about Adam.
At last, after searching dozens of websites, we discovered the identity of the mystery poet. It was
revealed on a US National Park Service website describing Mount Rainer National Park, in west-
central Washington state. The Mt Rainier Nature News Notes of July 1, 1927 contained this brief
item, tucked away as an end-of-column filler:

THE SHORTEST POEM

We like poetry but we cannot stand it in too large doses. The following, which according to its author,
Strickland Gillilan, is the shortest poem existing, deals with the antiquity of "bugs". It runs thus: Adam
had em!

Who, we then asked ourselves, was Strickland Gillilan? Google knew (of course). He was an
American poet, who lived from 1869 to 1954. As confirmation, we found this notation from
ThinkQuest's LitStudies:

The shortest couplet that forms a poem is perhaps "Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes" by Strickland
Gillilan: Adam/Had 'em.

Googling his name, we found that Strickland Gillilan (1869-1954), was a U.S. poet mainly
remembered these days for this rhyme (particularly the final couplet) often quoted on Mothers'
Day:

1.) The Reading Mother

I had a Mother who read me things

That wholesome life to a child's heart brings
Stories that stir with an upward touch.
Oh that every Mother were such!

You may have tangible wealth untold

Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be.
I had a Mother who read to me.

Mystery solved. But we'd still like to learn the name of the genius who amended the title from
Gillilan's rather ponderous Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes to what to my mind is the much
funnier Fleas. My esteemed friend and colleague, webmaster Barry Downs, says "I prefer the
original verbose title, which contrasts nicely with the terse verse."
2.) Masks

She had blue skin.

And so did he.
He kept it hid
And so did she.
They searched for blue
Their whole life through,
Then passed right by
And never knew.

3.) The Sun Never Says

Even
after
all this time
the sun never says to the earth,

"You owe me."

Look
what happens
with a love like that--

it lights the whole

world.

-Hafiz
4.) Always Finish

If a task is once begun,

Never leave it till it's done.
Be the labor great or small,
Do it well or not at all.

- Anonymous
5.) BUT YOU DIDNT

Remember the day I borrowed your brand

new car and dented it?
I thought you'd kill me, but you didn't.

And remember the time I dragged you to the beach,

and you said it would rain, and it did?
I thought you'd say, "I told you so." But you didn't.

Do you remember the time I flirted with all

the guys to make you jealous, and you were?
I thought you'd leave, but you didn't.

Do you remember the time I spilled strawberry pie

all over your car rug?
I thought you'd hit me, but you didn't.

And remember the time I forgot to tell you the dance

was formal and you showed up in jeans?
I thought you'd drop me, but you didn't.

Yes, there were lots of things you didn't do.

But you put up with me, and loved me, and protected me.

There were lots of things I wanted to make up to you

when you returned from Vietnam.

But you didn't.

The origin of the poem: a common American family, mother and daughter lived together.
Father was enlisted and went to Vietnam when daughter was 4 years old. Unfortunately he
 died. The mother didn't remarry and lived to 80. when she died, her daughter found a letter in
her mother's things which the poem above "but you didn't"!
6.) If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the
stars.

Rabindranath Tagore
7.) If you're sloppy, that's just fine.
If you're moody, I won't mind.
If you're fat, that's fine with me.
If you're skinny, let it be.
If you're bossy, that's all right.
if you're nasty, I won't fight.
If you're rough, well that's just you.
If you're mean, that's all right too.
Whatever you are is all okay.
I don't like you anyway.

-Shel Silverstein
8.) A poem that has always haunted me; not only with its brokenhearted rebuke, but also its
anonymity, now lost to the ages.

WHEN I THINK ABOUT WHY

When I think about why

You sent that fan to me,
I wonder if you meant
For me to blow out the fire in my heart.

How could I put out a fire with a fan

When teardrops failed?

-Anonymous, 16th Century Korea

9.) "The Voice" by Shel Silverstein

"There is a voice inside of you

That whispers all day long,
I feel that this is right for me,
I know that this is wrong.
No teacher, preacher, parent, friend
Or wise man can decide
Whats right for you just listen to
The voice that speaks inside."
10.) Nothing Gold Can Stay

Natures first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leafs a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost