Eliaphelet Oram Lyte
Nov. 28th, 2021 11:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloYou lead a life of public service, you go through a war and pick up an honourable wound, you publish a number of books in your chosen field- and what are you remembered for? For being the first person to put a popular, four line jingle into print.
Sometimes Fate or Fame or whatever allegorical female is responsible for this sort of outcome seems to be having a bit of a laugh.
I'm talking about Eliaphelet Oram Lyte (1842-1913) a Pennsylvania school teacher (headmaster, even) who wrote a book in 1882 which included the definitive version of "Row, row, row your boat". He almost certainly didn't write the words because they had appeared earlier- in the 1850s, but he may have written the tune- and a very pretty tune it is too- especially if sung as a round.
Eliaphelet. I wonder if his friends called him "Jumbo"...
And if you think, as I do, that there's something a bit esoteric about the song you might be tickled to learn that- according to his obit- he was a 33rd degree freemason, according to the Scottish Rite.
Which would have entitled him to wear a white hat- or even a purple one if appointed to the supreme council...
Sometimes Fate or Fame or whatever allegorical female is responsible for this sort of outcome seems to be having a bit of a laugh.
I'm talking about Eliaphelet Oram Lyte (1842-1913) a Pennsylvania school teacher (headmaster, even) who wrote a book in 1882 which included the definitive version of "Row, row, row your boat". He almost certainly didn't write the words because they had appeared earlier- in the 1850s, but he may have written the tune- and a very pretty tune it is too- especially if sung as a round.
Eliaphelet. I wonder if his friends called him "Jumbo"...
And if you think, as I do, that there's something a bit esoteric about the song you might be tickled to learn that- according to his obit- he was a 33rd degree freemason, according to the Scottish Rite.
Which would have entitled him to wear a white hat- or even a purple one if appointed to the supreme council...
