David Bates



David Bates (March 6, 1809 - January 25, 1870) was an American poet.

Life
David Bates was born at Indian Hill, Ohio. He began working as a clerk in Buffalo, New York. Later he went to work in a mercantile house in Indianapolis, Indiana; he eventually became the buyer and a full member of the company, and settled in Philadelphia with his family.

Bates became a man of letters and contributed to journals. In 1849 he published a volume of poetry, Eolian.

His son Stockton, who published his collected works after his father's death, wrote that "Two of his poems, `Speak Gently,' and `Childhood,' have attained a world-wide reputation; while the former of these, by translation into other languages, has become almost a universal hymn" (Poetical Works [Philadelphia, 1870]: vii).

"Speak Gently" gained even more fame after Lewis Carroll parodied it in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Stanza 3 of Bates's "Speak Gently" reads: Speak gently to the little child! Its love be sure to gain; Teach it in accents soft and mild: -- It may not long remain.

While Carroll's begins: Speak roughly to your little boy, And beat him when he sneezes; He only does it to annoy, Because he knows it teases.