Julian Tepper · 12 July 2001

I prefer, to the girl with the curl, the West that was best, the one who, when she was bad, was better.

Julian Tepper

Simplygoof · 17 December 2002

My grandmother cited this poem to me when I was a young child as if I were the little girl. She also purchased a doll with pigtails and the famous curl, one hand fisted and the other open, that I still have about 36 years later.

DKemp12942 · 21 April 2003

My Daddy taught this to me when I was a about two years old and once stood me on the stage at a school event and I recited it. That was 77 years ago, but I never forgot it.
Dorothy Wilson Kempton

Ian Baillieu · 14 August 2003

I remember long ago hearing a risque parody, the last (6th) line of which went: ‘And when she was bad she was marvellous’.

Nance Barbara · 9 February 2004

Does the poem have a second verse? I found another site that did not give Longfellow credit, and added a second verse.
Thank you.

Barbara B. Nance
Irwin Middle School
Ft. Bragg, NC 28303

S & T Whiteside · 6 April 2004

Hi Jane–Try this: She went to bed / In her little trundle bed / With nobody by for to hinder She screamed….. Of course, the bed-bed is lame, but that’s what MY dad always said. He’s 87, can’t remember when he didn’t know the poem. The rest of us in the family used to tease him when he claimed it was by Longfellow. Dad’s laughing last! What other answers have you received? Hope this is helpful. Sandra

PS When I was a little girl I thought Curlylocks was in her underwear and that her “most emphatic” was a spankable part of her anatomy.

LckJun · 7 July 2004

Our family rendition goes like this:

There was a little girl who had a little curl Right in the middle of her forehead’
When she was good she was very,very good
But when she was bad she was horrid.

She stood on her head in her little trundle bed With nobody by for to hinder
She screamed and she squalled and she yelled and she bawled As she drummed her little feet against the “winder”(window).

Her mother heard the noise and thought it was the boys Playing in the empty attic
She ran upstairs and caught her unawares,
And spanked her most emphatic!

Amy From Naples FL

What do you think of our version?

renglish · 10 June 2006

My mom would sing this song to us kids and then the grandkids but she sang a different version as well….

Once there was a little girl and she had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead.
And when she was good
she was awful awful good
but when she was bad she was horrid.

One day she stood on her headie (head)
in her little trundle beddie (bed)
when no one was by for to hinder her
and she kicked and she squawled and she yelled and she bawled and rubbed her heals against the winder.

Then her mommy her the noise and she thought it was the boys playing in the empty attic
then she rushed upstairs
grabbed her underwears and spanked her little buttie.

When I had boys I changed it to….. Once there was a little boy and he had a little toy right in the middle of his cradle…. then the rest stayed the same from there.

Dnybylthr · 21 August 2006

There are, indeed, more lines to this poem. If you are able to find any of the old “Uncle Don’s Nursery Rhymes” 78 rpm records from the 1940s, or tapes or cd copies, you’ll hear the entire “There was a little girl” rhyme. On the same album, there was another rhyme, or the end of the “There was a little girl” rhyme, that goes, in part,
“Up there I met an old man,
Who would not say his prayers,
So I took him by the left leg,
And I threw him down the stairs!”

As a baby, I used to know all the rhymes on Uncle Don’s records, but that was a long time ago. Yet the words and music remain inside me in bits and pieces.
James

Dr Bryan Sher · 22 March 2007

WHAT WAS THE LITTLE GIRLS NAME. IF YOU COULD LET ME KNOW,THAT WOULD BE SO GREAT. THANKS
SUZANNE

Diane · 11 November 2007

I’ve always liked this poem and thought it applied to the human race in general - girls, boys, women, men - young and old. At times the gremlin comes out in us all. The 5th line I have always heard was, “and when she was good she was very, very good.” I think the rhyming and the rhythm is improved with this version - the word “indeed” comes out of nowhere.

N H Palmer · 13 December 2007

I was astonished to learn that Google could find this poem-but then, I didn’t know it was by Longfellow.

When I was five or six (1925 - 1926), Santa brought me a gold spring-wound phonograph that played records probably 6” in diameter. This little song was on one of the records, with all of the verses included by Jane Gigi Anderson in her comments above. I could not remember the second verse and had resorted to friend Google to help. Thanks, Gigi!

If you happen to remember another couple of lines between “Window” and Her Mother,” I’d appreciate it. I wonder where you found those words!

N H Palmer

Kory & Renee Marks · 25 January 2008

My mother sang this to me as a child. I have yet to find anyone who knows the 2nd verse.

There was a little girl, who had a little curl, Right in the middle of her forehead,
When she was good she was very very good,
But when she was bad she was horrid.

Then…one day the little girl, brushed away the little curl, Away from the middle of her forehead,
Now she is good, she’s so very very good,
And nobody thinks she is horrid.

I have search out of curiosity and I only see the 1st verse written. I am a lady in my 50’s and my mother is long gone. This is the way she sang it.

Thanks for your time.

Renee Marks