Eugene Field - Amherst, MA - Dead Poets' Society Memorials on Waymarking.com

A series of nine terracotta tile plaques created by Judith Inglese and Helena Dooley Metha in 1999 honor poets and writers who have a connection to Amherst, MA.

An 8" square terracotta tile plaque contains and illustration and the text of first line of the poem "The Duel" by "the poet of childhood" Eugene Field. A dog covered in a blue gingham pattern and a cat covered in a floral calico pattern are seated in front of a clock.

The perimeter of the tile is inscribed:

THE GINGHAM DOG
AND THE CALICO CAT
SIDE BY SIDE
ON THE TABLE SAT     EUGENE FIELD

The clock is mentioned in the next line of the poem: T was half-past twelve, and (what do you think!).

Eugene Field was born on September 2, 1850 in St. Louis, MO. After the death of his mother in 1856, he was raised by his cousin, Mary Field French, in Amherst, MA. He was first employed as a journalist for the St. Joseph Gazette in Saint Joseph, MO where rose to the position of city editor. There he wrote humorous articles and poems. He worked at several newspapers around the country before moving to Chicago where he wrote a column called Sharps and Flats for the Chicago Daily News.

Several of his poems were set to music and became a commercial success. His additional writings include:

Wynken, Blynken, & Nod and Other Bedtime Rhymes
Poems of Childhood
The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac
The Poems of Eugene Field
A Little Book of Western Verse
The Mouse and the Moonbeam
The Werewolf

Fields died in Chicago on November 4, 1895 at age 45. In 2016, Field was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.

"The Duel"
by Eugene Field

The gingham dog and the calico cat
Side by side on the table sat;
'T was half-past twelve, and (what do you think!)
Nor one nor t' other had slept a wink!
The old Dutch clock and the Chinese plate
Appeared to know as sure as fate
There was going to be a terrible spat.
(I was n't there; I simply state
What was told to me by the Chinese plate!)

The gingham dog went "Bow-wow-wow!"
And the calico cat replied "Mee-ow!"
The air was littered, an hour or so,
With bits of gingham and calico,
While the old Dutch clock in the chimney-place
Up with its hands before its face,
For it always dreaded a family row!
(Now mind: I 'm only telling you
What the old Dutch clock declares is true!)

The Chinese plate looked very blue,
And wailed, "Oh, dear! what shall we do!"
But the gingham dog and the calico cat
Wallowed this way and tumbled that,
Employing every tooth and claw
In the awfullest way you ever saw---
And, oh! how the gingham and calico flew!
(Don't fancy I exaggerate---
I got my news from the Chinese plate!)

Next morning, where the two had sat
They found no trace of dog or cat;
And some folks think unto this day
That burglars stole that pair away!
But the truth about the cat and pup
Is this: they ate each other up!
Now what do you really think of that!
(The old Dutch clock it told me so,
And that is how I came to know.)