Literary
Although he wrote some poetry and verse as a young child, Birmelin did not begin writing again until the later years of his life. During the early 1930s, Birmelin's poetry was included as part of "'S Pennsylvaanisch Deitsch Eck" ("The Pennsylvania Dutch Corner") column in The Morning Call, and writings from Birmelin were in 62 of the first 100 published columns. His most commercially successful work was Mammi Gans: The Dialect Nursery Rhymes of John Birmelin, a Pennsylvania German translation of many of the Mother Goose nursery rhymes. Birmelin's poetry often dealt with aspects of Pennsylvania German life and history. "Gwendeltee", one of his earliest works, is a poem about a beautiful Pennsylvania German girl on a farm. "Regina Hartmann" tells about the return of a Pennsylvania German girl taken prisoner during the French and Indian War. "Der Laaf Kaaf" pertains to the Walking Purchase.
John Birmelin's Pennsylvania German translation of the song "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" (often known as "America") was, and still remains, regularly sung at Fersommling and other Pennsylvania German events:
| “ | Mei Land, ich sing von dir, Siess iss die Freiheet mir, Do will ich sei; So wie die alde Leit, So fiehl ich aa noch heit, Bin dir zu yedre Zeit Immer gedrei. An Felsebaerrye naus, Iwwer die Wolke drauss, Ring Freiheetsklang! Winters im diefe Schnee, Summers wann's Feld mit Glee, O Land, wie bischt du schee, Kling Freiheets Gsang! Unsrer Voreldre Gott, Fiehr uns in yedre Not, An deinre Hand! So lang mir dir gedrei, Bleibt des Land gross un frei; Du sollscht uns Keenich sei, Schutz unserm Land. |
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Famous quotes containing the word literary:
“It is a good lesson—though it may often be a hard one—for a man who has dreamed of literary fame, and of making for himself a rank among the world’s dignitaries by such means, to step aside out of the narrow circle in which his claims are recognized, and to find how utterly devoid of all significance, beyond that circle, is all that he achieves, and all he aims at.”
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“I am not a literary man.... I am a man of science, and I am interested in that branch of Anthropology which deals with the history of human speech.”
—J.A.H. (James Augustus Henry)
“Learning is, in too many cases, but a foil to common sense; a substitute for true knowledge. Books are less often made use of as “spectacles” to look at nature with, than as blinds to keep out its strong light and shifting scenery from weak eyes and indolent dispositions.... The learned are mere literary drudges.”
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830)