Nursery Rhymes : Known – Unknown : : School Poems : :

Nursery Rhyme is A Tale Rhymed in Verses For Children. It’s a traditional poem in U. K. and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes . From the mid-16th century nursery rhymes begin to be recorded in English plays, and most popular rhymes date from the 17th and 18th centuries. The first English collections, Tommy Thumb’s Song Book and a sequel, Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book, were published by Mary Cooper in 1744. Thomas Carnan, was the first to use the term Mother Goose for nursery rhymes when he published a compilation of English rhymes, Mother Goose’s Melody, or, Sonnets for the Cradle (London, 1780). Many of the ideas about the links between rhymes and historical persons, or events, can be traced back to Katherine Elwes’s book The Real Personages of Mother Goose (1930), in which she linked famous nursery-rhyme characters with real people, on little or no evidence. She posited that children’s songs were a peculiar form of coded historical narrative, propaganda or covert protest, and did not believe that they were written simply for entertainment.

lullabies, intended to help a child fall asleep. Lullabies can be found in every human culture. The English term lullaby is thought to come from “lu, lu” or “la la” sounds made by mothers or nurses to calm children, and “by by” or “bye bye”, either another lulling sound or a term for good night. A well known lullaby such as “Rock-a-bye, baby on a tree top”, cannot be found in records until the late-18th century when it was printed by John Newbery (c. 1765). Nursery rhymes with 17th century origins include, “Jack Sprat” (1639), “The Grand Old Duke of York” (1642), “Lavender’s Blue” (1672) and “Rain Rain Go Away” (1687). These rhymes seem to have come from a variety of sources, including traditional riddles, proverbs, ballads, lines of Mummers’ plays, drinking songs, historical events, and, it has been suggested, ancient pagan rituals. The first English collections, Tommy Thumb’s Song Book and a sequel, Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book, were published by Mary Cooper in London in 1744, with such songs becoming known as ‘Tommy Thumb’s songs’. A copy of the latter is held in the British Library.About half of the currently recognised “traditional” English rhymes were known by the mid-18th century. More English rhymes were collected by Joseph Ritson in Gammer Gurton’s Garland or The Nursery Parnassus (1784), published in London by Joseph Johnson. By the time of Sabine Baring-Gould’s A Book of Nursery Songs (1895), folklore was an academic study, full of comments and footnotes. A professional anthropologist, Andrew Lang (1844–1912) produced The Nursery Rhyme Book in 1897. The illustrations to children’s books including Randolph Caldecott’s Hey Diddle Diddle Picture Book (1909) and Arthur Rackham’s Mother Goose (1913). The children’s writer and illustrator Beatrix Potter also provided two collections, Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes (1917) and Cecily Parsley’s Nursery Rhymes (1922). The only known full set of Potter’s four original watercolour illustrations to “This Little Piggy” sold for £60,000 in 2012. The definitive study of English rhymes remains the work of Iona and Peter Opie .

There have been several attempts, across the world, to revise nursery rhymes (along with fairy tales and popular songs). In the late 19th century the major concern seems to have been violence and crime, which led some children’s publishers in the United States like Jacob Abbot and Samuel Goodrich to change Mother Goose rhymes. In the early and mid-20th centuries this was a form of bowdlerisation, concerned with some of the more violent elements of nursery rhymes and led to the formation of organisations like the British ‘Society for Nursery Rhyme Reform’. it has been argued that revised versions may not perform the functions of catharsis for children, or allow them to imaginatively deal with violence and danger. In the late 20th century revisionism of nursery rhymes became associated with the idea of political correctness. Felix Dennis’s When Jack Sued Jill – Nursery Rhymes for Modern Times (2006), or satires written as if in order to condemn reform. The controversy in Britain in 1986 over changing the language of “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” because, it was alleged in the popular press, it was seen as racially dubious, was apparently based only on a rewriting of the rhyme in one private nursery, as an exercise for the children. R. Bayley, Foundations of Literacy: A Balanced Approach to Language, Listening and Literacy Skills in the Early Years, 2004 argued that nursery rhymes set to music aid in a child’s development. In the German Kniereitvers, the child is put in mock peril, but the experience is a pleasurable one of care and support, which over time the child comes to command for itself. Research also supports the assertion that music and rhyme increase a child’s ability in spatial reasoning, which aid mathematics skills. Associated Press, “Study says preschool music lessons may aid math skills”, Chicago Tribune, August 14, 1994.