What are the origins of the Nursery Rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence?
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It was used by the pirate Blackbeard as a secret song for people to join.\n\nThe nursery rhyme "Six a Song of Sixpence" was a coded message that evolved over several years' times and was used by confederates of the notorious pirate Blackbeard to recruit crew members for his prize-hunting expeditions. Like many other messages passed down to us over hundreds of years by oral tradition, there is no one "official" version, nor is there a "correct" interpretation for any particular variant. In general, however, the most common form of this rhyme bore these veiled meanings: \n\n\nSing a song of sixpence / A pocket full of rye \nBlackbeard's standard payment of sixpence a day was considered good money in the 1700s, especially since most pirate vessels did not pay a salary: the crew only received a share of the spoils if they were successful in capturing prizes (and many a pirate ship had to return to port empty-handed after spending several fruitless months at sea). As well, his crew was promised a pocket (a leather bag somewhat like an early canteen which held about a liter) full of rye (whiskey) per day. Not bad, considering that alcohol was the average sailor's raison d'etre. \n\n\nFour and twenty blackbirds / Baked in a pie \nAs Henry Betts points out in his book on the origins and history of nursery rhymes, "It was a favourite trick in the sixteenth century to conceal all sorts of surprises in a pie." Buccaneers, too, were fond of surprises, and one of Blackbeard's favorite ruses to lure a ship within boarding range was to make his own vessel (or crew) appear to be in distress, typically by pretending to have been dismasted in a storm or to have sprung a leak below the waterline. Passing ships — both honest sailors wanting to help and other pirates looking for an easy catch — would sail in close to offer assistance, whereupon a crew of two dozen heavily-armed seamen dressed in black would board the other vessel (via a boat in darkness or fog, or by simply jumping into the other ship when it came alongside if no other means of surprise attack was possible) to quickly kill or disable as many crew members as possible. Thus the four and twenty "blackbirds" (i.e., Blackbeard's crewmen) "baked in a pie" (i.e., concealed in anticipation of springing a trap). \n\n\nWhen the pie was opened / The birds began to sing \nThis follows from the previous line. Once the victim's ship was lured in for the kill, the "blackbirds" came out of hiding and attacked with a fearsome din. \n\n\nWas that not a tasty dish / To set before a king? \nThis line is commonly misinterpreted. The King is not a reference to any real king, but rather to Blackbeard himself, the king of pirates. And the tasty dish is the plundered ship that was so easily captured. \n\n\nThe King was in his counting house / Counting out his money \n\nAgain, the King is Blackbeard (no real king would take on such a mean task as counting money). This line of the message signals that Blackbeard had the cash on hand to pay a crew on salary rather than strictly on divided spoils. \n\n\nThe Queen was in the parlor / Eating bread and honey \nBlackbeard's main vessel was a French merchant ship named "Le Concorde de Nantes" that was jointly captured by Blackbeard and Captain Hornigold in the Grenadines in November of 1717. Upon his retirement from pirating, Hornigold presented the ship to Blackbeard, who renamed it "The Queen Anne's Revenge". Thus the "Queen" referred to here is Blackbeard's ship, and "eating bread and honey" meant that it was in port taking on supplies in preparation for a cruise. \n\n\nThe Maid was in the garden / Hanging out the clothes \nThe use of the word "maid" indicated that the location/route of one or more prize ships was known, and they were going to be specific targets of the upcoming cruise (this greatly
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The air was taken from a traditional Irish dance and march tune, "Oró Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile" (Translated as "Óró, you are welcome home") and is in the dorian mode. The same tune has also been used for other songs, notably Ten Little Injuns.\n\nThe music was first reproduced in printed form in 1824–25 in Cole’s Selection of Favourite Cotillions published in Baltimore. However, the lyrics were first published in 1891 under the title "What to do with a Drunken Sailor?" Another version from 1921 was subtitled Windlass and Capstan and collected and edited by R. R. Terry.
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This is one version of the rhyme:\nHalf a pound of tuppenny rice,\nHalf a pound of treacle.\nThat’s the way the money goes,\nPop goes the weasel.\n\nUp and down the City road,\nIn and out the Eagle,\nThat’s the way the money goes,\nPop goes the weasel.\n\nEvery night when I go out\nthe monkey’s on the table.\nTake a stick and knock it off\nPop goes the weasel.\n\nA penny for a ball of thread\nAnother for a needle,\nThat’s the way the money goes,\npop goes the weasel.\n\nAll around the cobblers bench\nthe monkey chased the people;\nThe donkey thought ’twas all in fun,\npop goes the weasel. Before anybody rushes to put fingers to keyboard, let me say that this is by no means the only version of the lyric. There are several others, especially from the United States. But this is the usual British version, a famous catchy rhyme (or at least, as you say, the first two verses are).\nThe earliest reference I can find to music with this name actually comes from the United States, from sheet music entitled “Pop goes the Weasel for Fun and Frolic”, published in 1850 by Messrs Miller and Beacham of Baltimore. Another from three years later refers to “the latest English dance” and also “an old English Dance lately revived”, so it seems to have been imported from Britain. None of these early versions had any lyrics apart from a repeated “Pop goes the weasel”, the catch line of the dance, which was sung or shouted by the dancers as one pair of them darted under the arms of the others. Several references in books and magazines suggest that the tune soon became extremely well known, and that pop goes the weasel became a catchphrase, as it later did in Britain. There have been suggestions that the phrase was intended to be ribald or erotic, though the explanations I’ve seen are somewhat fanciful.\nFollowing first publication of this article, David Joyce wrote that: “The tune is a version of that used for the country dance, The Haymakers, which has the same form as Strip the Willow, and Bab at the Bowster (a couple hold hands, forming a bridge, which the other couples have to pass under). The tune was published in Gow’s Repository, issued in four volumes between 1799 and 1820. Thus the tune was around at least half a century before the American publication of Pop Goes The Weasel, but is certainly very much older. (It is similar to the tune used for Humpty Dumpty, and not far removed from Lilliebulero and Rock A-bye Baby, all jigs traceable back to the seventeenth century.)”\nThe first British mention of the phrase pop goes the weasel dates from an advertisement by Boosey and Sons of 1854 which described “the new country dance ‘Pop goes the weasel’, introduced by her Majesty Queen Victoria” (a puff to be taken with a large pinch of salt, we may assume). It would seem from the dates that the title was taken from the American publication of 1850.\nTalking of Queen Victoria, I found these words attached to the tune in the March 1860 issue of the Southern Literary Messenger of Richmond, Virginia:\nQueen Victoria’s very sick,\nPrince Albert’s got the measles.\nThe children have the whooping cough,\nAnd pop! Goes the weasel. Her Majesty would not have been amused.\nYour version was a British music-hall song of the latter part of the Victorian period (quite when I haven’t been able to discover); it is highly probable that the words were composed to the tune of the earlier dance because everyone on both sides of the Atlantic seems to have the same one, even if the words are different.\nSome of the references are now quite opaque, but we can take a fair shot at a few. In the second verse, the City Road was—still is—a well-known street in London, more than a mile long. The Eagle was a famous public house and music hall, which lay near the east end of the road on the corner of Shepherdess Walk; this had started its life as a tea-garden, but was turned into a music hall in 1825 (one of the very first); it e
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Fee, Fie, Foe, Fum was part of a rhyme from Jack and the Beanstalk (Nursery Rhymes).  I think the other one was too, if I remember correctly.
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From one of the speeches in Henry VI part 2 (that's a Shakespeare play!)\n\nHere's the speech. The origin of Mum's the word comes in the third line:\n\n\n    Hume must make merry with the duchess' gold;\n    Marry, and shall. But how now, Sir John Hume!\n    Seal up your lips, and give no words but mum:\n    The business asketh silent secrecy.\n    Dame Eleanor gives gold to bring the witch:\n    Gold cannot come amiss, were she a devil.\n    Yet have I gold flies from another coast;\n    I dare not say, from the rich cardinal\n    And from the great and new-made Duke of Suffolk,\n    Yet I do find it so; for to be plain,\n    They, knowing Dame Eleanor's aspiring humour,\n    Have hired me to undermine the duchess\n    And buz these conjurations in her brain.\n    They say 'A crafty knave does need no broker;'\n    Yet am I Suffolk and the cardinal's broker.\n    Hume, if you take not heed, you shall go near\n    To call them both a pair of crafty knaves.\n    Well, so it stands; and thus, I fear, at last\n    Hume's knavery will be the duchess' wreck,\n    And her attainture will be Humphrey's fall:\n    Sort how it will, I shall have gold for all.
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Like ABC songs and nursery rhymes like london bridge, the wheels on the bus go round and round, etc.
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Many of these rhymes don't mean anything. What they are made for in the first place is to teach young children the art of rhythm.\n\nOnce your child reaches school age, maybe grade 2 he/she will enjoy something that will make some sort of sence. Why not try it on your child now, he/she just might enjoy it.\n\n\n\nWest wind, blow from your prairie nest\nBlow from the mountains, blow from the west.\nThe sail is idle, the sailor too;\nO! wind of the west, we wait for you.\nBlow, blow!\nI have wooed you so,\nBut never a favour you bestow.\nYou rock your cradle the hills between,\nBut scorn to notice my white lateen.\n\nI stow the sail, unship the mast:\nI wooed you long but my wooing's past;\nMy paddle will lull you into rest.\nO! drowsy wind of the drowsy west,\nSleep, sleep,\nBy your mountain steep,\nOr down where the prairie grasses sweep!\nNow fold in slumber your laggard wings,\nFor soft is the song my paddle sings.\n\nAugust is laughing across the sky,\nLaughing while paddle, canoe and I,\nDrift, drift,\nWhere the hills uplift\nOn either side of the current swift.\n\nThe river rolls in its rocky bed;\nMy paddle is plying its way ahead;\nDip, dip,\nWhile the waters flip\nIn foam as over their breast we slip.\n\nAnd oh, the river runs swifter now;\nThe eddies circle about my bow.\nSwirl, swirl!\nHow the ripples curl\nIn many a dangerous pool awhirl!\n\nAnd forward far the rapids roar,\nFretting their margin for evermore.\nDash, dash,\nWith a mighty crash,\nThey seethe, and boil, and bound, and splash.\n\nBe strong, O paddle! be brave, canoe!\nThe reckless waves you must plunge into.\nReel, reel.\nOn your trembling keel,\nBut never a fear my craft will feel.\n\nWe've raced the rapid, we're far ahead!\nThe river slips through its silent bed.\nSway, sway,\nAs the bubbles spray\nAnd fall in tinkling tunes away.\n\nAnd up on the hills against the sky,\nA fir tree rocking its lullaby,\nSwings, swings,\nIts emerald wings,\nSwelling the song that my paddle sings.
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children's_song
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Let me help you with the metre first: it is iambic, i.e. an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed one, as if you were saying "I AM, I AM".\nIt is a crossed rhyme you find in the 1st four verses of each stanza and then a paired rhyme, a couplet, in the 5th and 6th. \nIn stanza 1and 2 in vers 6 there is a deviation from the very regular metre; these lines start with a stressed syllable, making the beginning almost a trochee, perhaps in accordance with the sudden movement of "fluttering" and "tossing", whereas everything else is smooth and tranquil, almost pensive; thus the regular beat and the smoothness of the rhymes support the author's serene bliss.\n\nThe formatting in stanza 3 is slightly incorrect at least as far as the lay-out in your questions goes:\n"The waves beside them danced; but they\nOutdid the ..."
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Shortnin' Bread\nPaul Chaplain\n\n[Afro-American traditional]\n\n\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin', shortnin'\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin' bread\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin', shortnin'\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin' bread\n\nThree little children layin' in the bed\nTwo were sick and the other 'most dead\nSent for the doctor, the doctor said\n"Feed those children on shortnin' bread"\n\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin', shortnin'\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin' bread\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin', shortnin'\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin' bread\n\nWhen those children layin' in the bed\nHeard that talk about shortnin' bread\nThey popped up well and started to sing\nSkipping 'round the room doing the pigeon wing\n\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin', shortnin'\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin' bread\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin', shortnin'\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin' bread\n\nPut on the skillet \nPut on the lid\nMamma's going to make some shortnin' bread\nThat's not all she's going to do\nMamma's going to cook us some cocoa too\n\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin', shortnin'\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin' bread\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin', shortnin'\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin' bread\n\nI snuck to the kitchen, picked up the lid\nI filled my pockets full of shortnin’ bread\nI winked at the pretty little girl and said\n"Baby, how'd you like some shortnin’ bread"\n\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin', shortnin'\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin' bread\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin', shortnin'\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin' bread\n\nGot caught with the skillet \nGot caught with the lid\nGot caught with my mouth full of shortnin' bread\nSix months for the skillet, six months for the lid\nSix months in the jail eatin' shortnin’ bread\n\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin', shortnin'\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin' bread\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin', shortnin'\nMamma's little baby loves shortnin' bread\n\nanswer  paul chaplain
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The tune is from a classic French melody.  It has been used in many variations, including "Baa Baa Black Sheep", as noted above.  Many people believe that Mozart wrote the original tune.  This is untrue (the song is older than Mozart), but he did write several variations of it.\n\nFrench lyrics  of the original\nAh ! vous dirai-je, Maman,\nCe qui cause mon tourment\nPapa veut que je raisonne,\nComme une grande personne.\nMoi, je dis que les bonbons\nValent mieux que la raison\n\nTranslation\n Ah! I shall tell you, mum,\nwhat causes my torment.\nPapa wants me to reason\nLike an adult.\nMe, I say that candy\nIs worth more than reason.
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The joint authors of Twinkle twinkle little star were two sisters called Ann Taylor (1782-1866) and Jane Taylor (1783-1824).\nThe first publication date was 1806.\nI guess the Alphabet song came later on since back in those days all children were not scholarized.\nWhat do you reckon?
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In 19th century Britain , it was used to explain sex to children by parents and teachers , using examples of birds nesting ( bringing up a family in the nest (home ) and Bees mating ( sleeping together ).it was euphemism for sex education when taught informally. The expression of the Birds and Bees ( like many )has survived to this day
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Walk the floor with a teething baby for three hours and the kid is lucky if that's all your singing. But look at all the nursery rhymes and you will find that they are, for the most part, political statements of the day. Little Jack Horner was an embezzler. Mary, Mary, quite contrary was Mary Queen of Scots who butchered anyone she even thought might betray her. London Bridge is falling down was actually about London Bridge crumbling because of lack of repair and misuse of funds. Ring around the rosy is about the plague and herbs people used to carry in hopes of warding off the disease. Do a web search on nursery rhymes and you'll learn lots of good stuff.
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They were never really intended as childrens rhymes.\nhumpty dumpty was a huge cannon in England\nMary Mary quite contrary is Mary Queen of Scots\nA lot of them have a greater meaning than the obvious\n\nhave a look here\nhttp://www.rhymes.org.uk/
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2003 Repetative Song Street,\nManchester ,\nMerry old England
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Its acutally happy birthday.\nHappy Birthday was a song sung by over 200 countries\nIt has been around sinch 1800\nand has acutally originated from britian.