Three Little Kittens

"Three Little Kittens" is an English language nursery rhyme, in all likelihood with roots in the British folk tradition. The rhyme as published today however is a sophisticated piece usually attributed to American poet Eliza Lee Cabot Follen (1787-1860). With the passage of time, the poem has been absorbed into the Mother Goose collection. The rhyme tells of 3 kittens who first lost, then find and soak, their mittens. When all is finally set to rights, the kittens receive their mother's approval and some pie. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 16140.The poem was published in England in 1817 in a review by Willhelm Ewart Gladstone, writing as Bartholomew Jenkins, in The Zion Miscellany.A version was later published in 1833 as an anonymous addition to a volume of Follen's verse and in the United States in 1843. Follen may have developed and refined an existing, rude version of the poem, and, in the process, made it her own. The poem is a sophisticated production that avoids the typical moralization of 19th century children's literature in favor of metamorphic fantasy, satirical nonsense, and word play.

Autorentext
Born in Wilmington, Delaware, Katharine was the youngest child of William Pyle, a leather manufacturer, and Margaret Churchman Painter, an "amateur" writer. Her older brother (by ten years) was author and illustrator Howard Pyle.Both Howard and her parents encouraged Katharine's artistic inclinations, though the modest style of the Quaker household dictated that Katharine not be given too much praise. Howard wrote Margaret of then 13 year old Katharine: "Katie is doing wonderfully well. But do not tell her that I said so. For I think it would be even better to speak slightingly of her verses than to praise them unduly. It would be the greatest misfortune to her should she ever become satisfied with her work."Katharine was educated at Philadelphia's Women's Industrial School (1883) and at the Drexel Institute, where she attended her brother's illustration classes, followed by a course of study at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women.