A Plea

I’ve shared quite a few barefoot poems over the years. Well, I’ve found another one.

Read Full Post »

On Barefooting in Cold Weather

I haven’t shown a poem in a while, but that’s mainly because I really haven’t come across many. But today I have a brand new one by fellow barefooter Chris Billings. He’s from near San Antonio, where you’d think it does get all that cold.

That just means that when it does cool off, the people there are even more aghast at seeing somebody barefoot.

Read Full Post »

The Barefoot Boy, Modernized

Last week we heard the story about the Children in a Democracy report cover that was torn off because it depicted 3 barefoot children on their way to school, and the government offical thought that reflected badly on the United States.

In one of the newspapers of the time there appeared a poem that mocked that decision.

Read Full Post »

Barefoot Days

I haven’t done a poem for a while.

Read Full Post »

The Barefoot Trail

Quite a while back I showed you a poem from 1907 by Edwin L. Sabin called The Barefoot Trail. There’s also a song with the same name (different words, completely different tune) from 1920, sung by the famous Irish Tenor, John McCormack.

Read Full Post »

Barefoot Boy

Back in the late 1800s/early 1900s, barefoot boys were the epitome of freedom, and it seems every poet (or would-be poet) ended up writing such a poem.

Here’s another one.

Read Full Post »

Barefoot Girl

We’re all (I presume) familiar with John Greenleaf Whittier’s classic poem “Barefoot Boy“.

Do you think maybe I could find a poem about a barefoot girl?

Read Full Post »

Another “Barefoot Boy”

It seems there are a few folks who want to claim to be John Greenleaf Whittier’s “Barefoot Boy”. One of those was Hans Peter Bertelsen.

Add to that Francis D. Marston.

Read Full Post »

Was Whittier His Own “Barefoot Boy”?

In Colorful Characters: Hans Peter Bertelsen, I wrote about how Hans Peter Bertelsen was considered the inspiration for John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem “The Barefoot Boy”. However, in a comment to that, it was suggested that Whittier himself was the barefoot boy.

What’s the real scoop?

Read Full Post »

Barefoot Man

Oh, well. I feel like blowing off today. So, here’s a quick and easy one, a poem.

Read Full Post »

Barefoot Days

I haven’t reproduced a poem in a while. Yes, they are late 19^th, early 20^th century and have the hokieness that implies, but that’s when going barefoot was appreciated and, dare I say, yearned for.

So, here’s another.

Read Full Post »

Goin’ Barefoot

In the late-1800s/early-1900s kids would play barefoot all the time. The poetry of the time thus hearkened back to those idyllic times with longing.

Here is one of those poems.

Read Full Post »

An Ol’ Poem

How about another poem as we look forward to springtime barefooting?

Read Full Post »

Barefoot Homiletics

Most of the poems that I’ve posted here are from the late 1800s or early 1900s, as the time of “barefoot boys” as the norm was starting to fade as the country urbanized. That’s not to say that it died out completely (the second “great decline” happened in the 1970s or so).

Anyways, here is a much more contemporary poem about bare feet.

Read Full Post »

When I Was A Barefoot Rover

Let’s do another poem today. This one is from 1897, and the only attribution is to “Chicago Inter Ocean”.

It’s not specifically about going barefoot, but makes the loss of going barefoot part of the lament of the passing of those younger days.

Read Full Post »