Slippery — Summary

This is a tiny, affectionate snapshot of a six-month-old baby just out of the bath, wriggling so much that the adults can barely hold her. The speaker doesn’t find the squirming frustrating—he finds it funny and endearing. He reimagines the wet, wriggling child as a “fish child,” as if she belongs partly to water, and offers the nickname “Slippery” like a loving joke rather than a complaint. The mood is warm, playful, and full of physical closeness. We can almost feel the damp skin and the small body twisting, and hear the laughter in the room. Sandburg keeps the language simple and concrete, so the poem reads like a quick, smiling observation from daily life—a moment caught before the baby is dried and dressed.