Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
There was a little girl

There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid.



Notes
Longfellow's second son Ernest says of this poem: "It was while walking up and down with his second daughter, then a baby in his arms, that my father composed and sang to her the well-known lines .... Many people think this a Mother-Goose rhyme, but this is the true version and history".