Poetica: "The Reading Mother" by Strickland Gillilan

By Megan Rials

Welcome to Poetica, the monthly poetry column of Shadowlands Dispatch! This month, we are pleased to feature Strickland Gillilan’s “The Reading Mother,” followed by an analysis and reflection by Shadowlands Dispatch Editor-in-Chief and Society for Women of Letters Content Editor Megan Rials. We hope you enjoy this Mother’s Day favorite!

“The Reading Mother”

By Strickland Gillilan

I had a mother who read to me
Sagas of pirates who scoured the sea,
Cutlasses clenched in their yellow teeth,
“Blackbirds” stowed in the hold beneath.

I had a Mother who read me lays
Of ancient and gallant and golden days;
Stories of Marmion and Ivanhoe,
Which every boy has a right to know.

I had a Mother who read me tales
Of Gelert the hound of the hills of Wales,
True to his trust till his tragic death,
Faithfulness blent with his final breath.

I had a Mother who read me the things
That wholesome life to the boy heart brings—
Stories that stir with an upward touch,
Oh, that each mother of boys 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.

“The Reading Mother” Analysis and Reflection by Megan Rials

American journalist, poet, author, humorist, and speaker Strickland Gillilan (1869-1954) is perhaps best known for his poem “The Reading Mother.” A graduate of Ohio University, Gillilan began his journalism career at the Herald in Jackson, Ohio, and continued on to Los Angeles, finally arriving in Warrenton, Virginia. In 1899, Gillilan became part of the lyceum movement, which offered traveling adult education in various forms (dramatic performances, lectures, and debates). He also served at the Baltimore American from 1902 to 1905, and by 1908, his poetry was being published in the Saturday Evening Post. Gillilan is credited with writing the shortest poem in existence, “Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes (‘Fleas’)”: “Adam/Had ’em.” His writing career also included short stories, one of which, “The Poison Squad,” is reported to have led to the passage of the Food and Drug Act of 1906.

Gillilan’s most enduring achievement, however, is his poem “The Reading Mother,” which has become a Mother’s Day favorite. In the poem, Gillilan references a number of different tales. In the first verse, he describes high-seas pirate adventures (with the main allusion appearing to be Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island). In the second verse, he refers to Sir Walter Scott’s romances Marmion and Ivanhoe, chronicling, respectively, a lecherous villain who meets his end during the Battle of Flodden, and a chivalrous knight in love with his father’s ward, Rowena. Finally, in the third verse, Gillilan discusses the Welsh legend of Gelert the hound, who protected his master’s infant son from a wolf only to be killed because of a tragic misunderstanding. The benefits of parents reading to their children are well documented, but the selection of high-quality literature is also necessary for the child’s moral development. A deep sense of justice pervades the rollicking tales mentioned in “The Reading Mother,” and the narrator expresses gratitude to his mother for exposing him to them. The combination of a loving mother’s attention with wholesome literature that bolsters the child’s moral development is a gift that lasts a lifetime, one that any individual blessed enough to have a reading mother knows well.

—Megan Rials is Editor-in-Chief of Shadowlands Dispatch. She is a writer, literary scholar, and poet. She holds a Juris Doctor from the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center and a Master of Arts in cultural apologetics from Houston Christian University. She serves as Content Editor and Scholar in Residence on the Leadership Council of the Society for Women of Letters. Her work has appeared in Christ and Pop Culture, Dappled Things, VoegelinView, Mere Orthodoxy, Fare Forward, An Unexpected Journal, The Worldview Bulletin, and Perichoresis. You can find her website here, and her X page here.