Four years after Sally's death, Henry was finally recovering. 1787 saw a large number of
his poems.
One was a poem for Rev. Timothy Dwight's son Timmy. It's a
sparkling piece that is extremely unusual for a birthday poem because it offers wishes a child
would want, rather than those that an adult would usually wish for a child.
Never may thy cricket ball,
In a well or puddle fall.
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Thirty-nine years before the publication of "An Account of a Visit From St. Nicholas",
twenty-eight years before the birth of Clement Clarke Moore's first child,
Henry was already rhyming jelly with belly!
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face, and a little round belly
That shook when he laugh'd, like a bowl full of jelly
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