Favourite Nursery Rhymne

[Kiwi Shelf]

Okay, I don't think the title to this is spelled right, but I am a little tired and don't feel like checking to see if it is right. I think of fairy tales and nursery "things" as seperate things. So what's your favourite?

[Libra Swords]

One of my favorites is ......

Hickery Dickery Dock
the mice ran up the clock,
the clock stuck twelve,
the mice ran down,
Hickery Dickery Dock!

[Isagel]

Nursery rhymes can actually be quite disturbing and morbid. I like the Mother Goose ones.

Ladybug! Ladybug!
Fly away home.
Your house is on fire.
And your children all gone.
All except one,
And that's Ann,
For she has crept under
The frying pan.

I also like the almost dadaistic Zum gali, gali:

Zum gali gali gali,
Zum gali gali.
Zum gali gali gali,
Zum gali gali.

[emily655321]

There are two that were my favorite, and both of them are somewhat morbid. Okay, the first one's really morbid.

There was an old woman who swallowed a fly
I don't know why she swallowed that fly
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old woman who swallowed a spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly
I don't know why she swallowed that fly
Perhaps she'll die.

(Then it goes...bird, cat, dog, goat, cow...)

There was an old woman who swallowed a horse...
She died, of course.



And this one isn't a nursery rhyme at all, but my mother always sang it as a lullaby -- and it rhymes -- so technically it's a nursery rhyme, right?

In Dublin's fair city
Where girls are so pretty
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone
She wheeled a wheelbarrow
Through streets broad and narrow
Crying, "C.ockles and mussels, alive, alive O!"

Alive, alive O...Alive, alive O
Crying, c.ockles and mussels, alive, alive-O!

She was a fish-monger
And sure 'twas no wonder
For so was her father and mother before.
They wheeled their wheelbarrows
Through streets broad and narrow
Crying, "C.ockles and mussels, alive, alive O!"

Alive, alive O...alive, alive O
Crying, c.ockles and mussels, alive, alive O!

She died of a fever
And no one could save her
And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone.
Now her ghost wheels the barrow
Through streets broad and narrow
Crying, "C.ockles and mussels, alive, alive O!"

Alive, alive O...alive, alive O
Crying, c.ockles and mussels, alive, alive O!

(dumb censor )

[amuse]

ooh, nice ending!

[Helga]

I like the one in a story about animals in a wood and how they learn to get along, it's very popular here and in many countries in Europe. In a simple translation it is called the animals in Halswood, I don't think it's been translated in english but it's very good. there is a song a mouse sings when the evil fox tries to eat it. the mouse hides in a tree and the fox sits and waits, the mouse starts singing:

I dwell in a dream palace
and think of the daytime.
Little mice all over the world
lay now down and sleep.
Ease will come over the woods
while the clouds will darken
and the fox will fall asleep
his tale under his chin.

and the fox falls asleep and the mouse can get away. It's a sweet story about not harming each other.

In the end the animals become vegetarians and live together in harmony...

[Diceman]

And this one isn't a nursery rhyme at all, but my mother always sang it as a lullaby -- and it rhymes -- so technically it's a nursery rhyme, right?

In Dublin's fair city
Where girls are so pretty
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone
(...etc...)

I don't suppose your affinity with "A Clockwork Orange" has anything to do with your appreciation of that song?

[emily655321]

Teehehe No, just a pleasant coincidence. I have vivid memories of singing that song with my mother at bedtime. Every night we'd read for while, then she'd turn out the lights and I'd say the Our Father and Hail Mary, then either she'd make up a story or I'd pick the lullabies and we'd sing them. My favorites were Molly Malone, O Shenandoah, Down in the Valley, and The Riddle (you know, "I gave my love a cherry that had no stone...").

K, done reminiscing.

[Ninjaiette]

i got this a book it goes:
miss mary mack mack mack, all dressed in black black black, she has a knife knife knife, stuck in her back back back, she cannot breathe breathe breathe she cannot cry cry cry that is why she begs, she begs to die die die.

i thought it was pretty cool.
Nevelle and Drea

[Algernon]

...Here's a classic you may enjoy.

"Mary Ann Cotton – She's dead and she's rotten! She lies in her bed With her eyes wide open.
Sing, sing! 'Oh, what can I sing? Mary Ann Cotton is tied up with string.'
Where, where? 'Up in the air – selling black puddings a penny a pair.' " (Victorian Nursery Rhyme About Britain's First Female Serial Killer)

[Pensive]

One of my favorites is ......

Hickery Dickery Dock
the mice ran up the clock,
the clock stuck twelve,
the mice ran down,
Hickery Dickery Dock!

This is one is also one of my favourites. My grandpa used to sing it for me when I was very young. But in Urdu, he used to and believe me, it had a perfect rhyming even in Urdu:

Chee Choo Chee Choo Chaccha
Ghari pay chooha nacha
Ghari nay aik bajaya
Chooha nichay aya

[TEND]

Oooh, I really like Emily's 'Molly Malone', I sang lots of the irish/scottish folk tunes to my young cousins and nephews. One of them's particular favorite was 'Irish Soldier Laddie' if anyone is familiar with that one. Not exactly a nursery rhyme, but you know.

[thevintagepiper]

I love the lullaby "All the little Horses." My favorite lullaby/rhyme ever is "Tender Shepherd," the version that has a second part:

"Once upon a time
Words we love so well
Story tellers tell
In words with wings
On knaves and kings
And wonderous things.
Like a lullaby
Like a magic spell
Every dream we weave
Is make believe...
etc"

As for normal nursery rhymes I love:

Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened the birds began to sing,
Oh wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?
The king was in his counting house counting out his money,
The queen was in the parlour eating bread and honey
The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes,
When down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose!

[lavendar1]

My mother recited this nursery rhyme/poem to me, my brothers, and my sisters. I 've had the pleasure of sharing it with each of my own children:

Winkin, Blinkin, and Nod

Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod, one night, sailed off in a wooden shoe;
Sailed off on a river of crystal light into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going and what do you wish?" the old moon asked the three.
"We've come to fish for the herring fish that live in this beautiful sea.
Nets of silver and gold have we," said Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod.

The old moon laughed and sang a song as they rocked in the wooden shoe.
And the wind that sped them all night long ruffled the waves of dew.
Now the little stars are the herring fish that live in that beautiful sea;
"Cast your nets wherever you wish - never afraid are we!"
So cried the stars to the fishermen three - Winkin', and Blinkin', and Nod.

So all night long their nets they threw to the stars in the twinkling foam.
'Til down from the skies came the wooden shoe bringing the fisherman home.
'Twas all so pretty a sail it seemed as if it could not be.
Some folks say 'twas a dream they dreamed of sailing that misty sea.
But I shall name you the fisherman three - Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod.

Now Winkin' and Blinkin' are two little eyes and Nod is a little head.
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies is a wee one's trundle bed.
So close your eyes while mother sings of the wonderful sights that be.
And you shall see those beautiful things as you sail on the misty sea,
Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three - Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod.

[Bastet]

Hello! A friend of mine who spent a long time in Ireland once told me that Molly Malone was a prostitute. Is that true? If it isn't, I'm sorry and I'm not trying to offend anybody, I'm just trying to get my facts straight and learn a little more about other cultures. Thank you!