Do You Remember These Classic Nursery Rhymes?

This simple rhyme dates back to the 1744 “Pretty Song Book” and is almost definitely about royalty. However, historians aren’t sure which Mary it’s about. It could be about Mary, Queen of Scots, or Mary I of England, also known as “Bloody Mary.” To further complicate the matter, both women were alive during the same time in the 16th century.

In 1755, a British doctor rewrote the words to a famous tune to mock American colonists. The result was “Yankee Doodle.” During the American Revolutionary War, English soldiers sang “Yankee Doodle” as they marched toward Lexington. But when colonial militiamen cornered the English, they began singing the song back at them, reclaiming the term “Yankee” and adopting the song as an anthem.

This rhyme and popular children’s singing game dates back to 1879 in the U.S. Like most nursery rhymes, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” has many versions. The original lyrics say that the letter was written to the narrator's “love,” while some kid-friendly versions have switched it to “friend.” Similarly, some versions have a little boy finding the letter and picking it up, and others say it was a little girl.

“Itsy Bitsy Spider” is a nursery rhyme about a small spider climbing up a drain pipe. As the rhyme is spoken, hand movements mimic the action of the climbing spider. The rhyme is fairly modern, first recorded in its present form in 1947 by the California Folklore Society. In England, “Itsy Bitsy” is more commonly known as “Incy Wincy.”

At 16th-century feasts, blackbirds were placed in pies as amusement but were eventually set free when the pies were cut open. This scene is described in the 18th-century rhyme “Sing a Song of Sixpence.” The nursery rhyme also includes a gruesome ending in which one of the birds returns to peck off the nose of a maid hanging up clothes outside to dry.

“Pop! Goes the Weasel” has been a popular song since the 18th century. The meaning of the lyrics is debated, but it’s thought that they might relate to the way weasels bob their heads up and down when startled. In the 1850s, the phrase “Pop! Goes the weasel” was used to mean “just like that” in American slang.

“He put her in a pumpkin shell and there he kept her very well…” This strange nursery rhyme about Peter keeping his wife in a pumpkin has been a longtime favorite in the U.S., dating back to 1825. It was first published in “Mother Goose’s Quarto,” but its origins are unclear. Some researchers point to a 19th-century Scottish song that was later adapted in the U.S. to use pumpkins in the lyrics.

"Little boy blue, come blow your horn. The sheep's in the meadow. The cow's in the corn." This nursery rhyme was first published in 1774, but the inspiration is centuries older. Early versions are found in Shakespeare’s play “King Lear,” when Edgar says, “Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepheard? Thy sheepe be in the corne; And for one blast of thy minikin mouth thy sheepe shall take no harme.”

This nursery rhyme is based on the true story of Mary Sawyer from Sterling, Massachusetts, who took her pet lamb to school. The incident was written into a rhyme in the early 19th century by Sarah Josepha Hale, and composer Lowel Mason later added a tune. The rhyme became cemented in history when the lyrics were the first words to be recorded on a phonograph by Thomas Edison in 1877.

“Hickory, Dickory, Dock” is a rhyme about a mouse running up a clock. It’s thought to have originally been a counting game developed by shepherds from the English Cumbrian dialect’s words for counting sheep: “hevera” (8), “devera” (9), and “dick” (10). The rhyme was first recorded in the 1744 collection of English nursery rhymes “Tom Thumb’s Pretty Songbook.”

The nursery rhyme featuring Little Bo Peep losing her sheep comes from the early 19th century. However, the name of the character likely derives from the medieval children’s game known as “Bo Peep,” which is thought to be like the modern game peek-a-boo. The first version of the nursery rhyme was published in 1805.

The exact origins of Humpty Dumpty are much debated, but it is generally thought that the rhyme was originally a riddle in which the answer was an egg. As a result, since the 19th century, Humpty Dumpty is usually pictured as an anthropomorphic egg. The phrase “humpty dumpty” originally meant “ale boiled with brandy.”

First written down in 1820, "The Muffin Man" tells the story of a man who delivers bread to Drury Lane, a poor, overpopulated area of London, England. The rhyme was eventually turned into a children's game, where players would ask the person next to them if they knew the muffin man, and that person would reply by singing the next verse. This cycle would continue until the entire group was singing together.

This simple Mother Goose rhyme about poor Little Miss Muffet ends in terror: “Along came a spider, who sat down beside her, and frightened Miss Muffet away.” The rhyme dates back to 19th-century England and features some unique vocabulary from its era. "Tuffet" is a low seat, similar to a stool, and “curds and whey,” which Miss Muffett is eating in the rhyme, is another name for cottage cheese.

The lyrics to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” were originally written as a poem by Jane Taylor for an 1806 nursery rhyme collection. They were later adapted and put to the tune of the popular French lullaby “Ah! Vous dirai-je, maman,” meaning “Oh, shall I tell you, Mama.” “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” describes a star shining “like a diamond in the sky” and encourages children to look up and appreciate the night sky.

This short and simple rhyme was written in the early 1800s with possible inspiration from Jack Black, a wily pirate who always escaped from authorities. As for candle-leaping, that was a real activity in 18th-century England; it was good luck to clear the flame without putting it out. The original song dates back to 1815 but was first printed and distributed by James Orchard Halliwell in the mid-19th century.

“Hey Diddle Diddle" was first printed in 1765 in “Mother Goose’s Melodies,” but its origins could be as old as the pyramids. The words have connections to ancient Egypt, including "fiddle," which may be a nod to fiddler beetles (scarab beetles), one of the most common insects of the time. Other researchers claim that the rhyme is about the Tudors, which could be true because the rhyme was printed in London.

In "Jack and Jill," poor Jack fell and broke his crown and Jill tumbled after him. While most of us can easily recite the first stanza of this 18th-century Mother Goose rhyme, the lesser-known second stanza of “Jack and Jill” assures us that Jack is OK: “Up Jack got, and home did trot, as fast as he could caper, to old Dame Dob, who patched his nob, with vinegar and brown paper.”

“Old MacDonald” debuted in the early 18th century, and today it’s beloved by parents as a way to teach their kids about the sounds made by farm animals. The original was written for an opera in 1706 by Thomas d’Urfey but was adapted into a more upbeat folk song. The refrain, “E-I-E-I-O,” was first introduced in Frederick Thomas Nettleingham’s 1917 collection, “Tommy’s Tunes.”

“A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked…” This English tongue-twister was first published in John Harris’ “Peter Piper’s Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation” in 1813. Some historians believe Peter was an 18th-century French horticulturist named Peter Poivre, who played a role in spice cultivation.

“It’s Raining, It’s Pouring” is an indelible nursery rhyme, so much so that it was enshrined in the Library of Congress. The first known recording is attributed to music folklorist and singer Herbert Halpert from the year 1939. The rhyme opens with the lyrics, “It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring.”