Couldn’t and Could
Couldn’t and Could were two promising boys
Who lived not a great while ago.
They had just the same playmates and just the same toys,
And just the same chances for winning life’s joys,
And all that the years may bestow.
And Could soon found out he could fashion his life
On lines very much as he planned;
He could cultivate goodness and guard against strife,
He could have all his deeds with good cheer to be rife,*
And build him a name that would stand.
But poor little Couldn’t just couldn’t pull through;
All the trials he met with a sigh;
When a task needed doing, he couldn’t, he knew;
And hence, when he couldn’t, how could he? Could you,
If you couldn’t determine you’d try?
So Could just kept building his way to success,
Not clouding his sky with a doubt;
But Couldn’t strayed into the Slough of Distress.
Alas! and his end is easy to guess -
Strayed in, but he couldn’t get out.
And that was the difference ’twixt Couldn’t and Could:
Each followed his own chosen plan;
And when Couldn’t just wouldn’t,
Could earnestly would,
And won with the watchword, “I can!”
by Nixon Waterman
*‘rife’ means ‘to be abounding’ or ‘to be filled with.’
Nixon Waterman was born on 12 November 1859 in Newark, Kendall County, Illinois, United States of America, as the son of Lyman Waterman and Elizabeth Waterman. He lived on a farm until he was 20 years of age, teaching school during the winter months, and began his newspaper career at 21 years of age in the mechanical department of a country weekly in Creston, Iowa. Mr. Waterman was married on 14 March 1883 to Nellie Haskins of Menasha, Wisconsin. Weary of being a press operator, he tried his hand at other branches of the business, and made rapid progress. He first won flattering recognition as a newspaper editorial writer in Omaha, Nebraska. He moved to Chicago in October 1889, where he supplied the editorial page of the Chicago “Herald” with witty and catchy rhymes printed under the caption, “Small Change,” which were copied in publications across America. When the proprietors of the “Herald” started the “Evening Post,” he was one of the coteries selected to create for that venture the conditions of popularity with the public. After seven months on the “Post,” he went back to the “Herald,” but a year later resigned to work for “Puck,” “Truth,” “Youth’s Companion” and other popular weekly newspapers and magazines. Nixon Waterman was a newspaper writer, a poet, a book author, and a Chautauqua lecturer. His first wife Nellie Waterman (maiden name Haskins) passed on sometime in 1940, and in November 1940, he married Grace Sanford Leavitt. Nixon Waterman passed on at 84 years of age on 1 September 1944 in Canton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Couldn’t and Could were two promising boys
Who lived not a great while ago.
They had just the same playmates and just the same toys,
And just the same chances for winning life’s joys,
And all that the years may bestow.
And Could soon found out he could fashion his life
On lines very much as he planned;
He could cultivate goodness and guard against strife,
He could have all his deeds with good cheer to be rife,*
And build him a name that would stand.
But poor little Couldn’t just couldn’t pull through;
All the trials he met with a sigh;
When a task needed doing, he couldn’t, he knew;
And hence, when he couldn’t, how could he? Could you,
If you couldn’t determine you’d try?
So Could just kept building his way to success,
Not clouding his sky with a doubt;
But Couldn’t strayed into the Slough of Distress.
Alas! and his end is easy to guess -
Strayed in, but he couldn’t get out.
And that was the difference ’twixt Couldn’t and Could:
Each followed his own chosen plan;
And when Couldn’t just wouldn’t,
Could earnestly would,
And won with the watchword, “I can!”
by Nixon Waterman
*‘rife’ means ‘to be abounding’ or ‘to be filled with.’
Nixon Waterman was born on 12 November 1859 in Newark, Kendall County, Illinois, United States of America, as the son of Lyman Waterman and Elizabeth Waterman. He lived on a farm until he was 20 years of age, teaching school during the winter months, and began his newspaper career at 21 years of age in the mechanical department of a country weekly in Creston, Iowa. Mr. Waterman was married on 14 March 1883 to Nellie Haskins of Menasha, Wisconsin. Weary of being a press operator, he tried his hand at other branches of the business, and made rapid progress. He first won flattering recognition as a newspaper editorial writer in Omaha, Nebraska. He moved to Chicago in October 1889, where he supplied the editorial page of the Chicago “Herald” with witty and catchy rhymes printed under the caption, “Small Change,” which were copied in publications across America. When the proprietors of the “Herald” started the “Evening Post,” he was one of the coteries selected to create for that venture the conditions of popularity with the public. After seven months on the “Post,” he went back to the “Herald,” but a year later resigned to work for “Puck,” “Truth,” “Youth’s Companion” and other popular weekly newspapers and magazines. Nixon Waterman was a newspaper writer, a poet, a book author, and a Chautauqua lecturer. His first wife Nellie Waterman (maiden name Haskins) passed on sometime in 1940, and in November 1940, he married Grace Sanford Leavitt. Nixon Waterman passed on at 84 years of age on 1 September 1944 in Canton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States of America.
