Back to index of "words and books and such" pages by Donald Sauter.
My Mother Goose pages:
    Mother Goose favorites - a personal selection. (You are HERE.)
    Mother Goose differences - a look at how the same rhyme can vary.
    Mother Goose modernized - a look at some rhymes touched up for kids of today.
    Mother Goose rarities - appearing for the first time on the world-wide web!
    Mother Goose and the Beatles - not to mention Bob Dylan and miscellaneous popsters.
    Mother Goose in classic literature - Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, Winnie the Pooh, et al.
    Mother Goose glossary - compare your vocabulary with a three-year-old's.
    Mother Goose first lines - a huge index.

Now then, don't expect anything particularly scholarly here. It's just that I poked through the first couple hundred web page hits on "mother goose" and didn't see any pages by a regular person presenting his favorites. The web is big enough for such a thing -

I'm not saying these have to be your favorites. For that, find a big ol' Mother Goose book, and jump in. Then, put up your page, and send me an invitation.

Generally, I won't bore you with reasons why I like a particular rhyme, but you can usually guess whether I thought it was funny, or sweet, or nice-sounding, or philosophical . . . or just plain nuts! There's kind of a flow from sweet and romantic, up through some Mother Goose "epics", and then back down through humorous - and maybe even a little bit mean!

Here we go . . .

***

The rose is red, the violet's blue;
The pink is sweet, and so are you.

(Isn't that a hundred times classier than what we're used to?)

***

Wash me and comb me,
And lay me down softly,
And set me on a bank to dry;
That I may look pretty
When some one comes by.

***

MY LOVE

Saw ye aught of my love a-coming from the market?
    A peck of meal upon her back,
    A babby in her basket;
Saw ye aught of my love a-coming from the market?

***

BOBBY SHAFTOE

Bobby Shaftoe's gone to sea,
Silver buckles on his knee:
He'll come back and marry me,
    Pretty Bobby Shaftoe!

Bobby Shaftoe's fat and fair,
Combing down his yellow hair;
He's my love for evermore,
    Pretty Bobby Shaftoe.

***

Do you love me,
Or do you not?
You told me once,
But I forgot.

***

"Old woman, old woman, shall we go a-shearing?"
"Speak a little louder, sir, I am very thick o' hearing."
"Old woman, old woman, shall I kiss you dearly?"
"Thank you, kind sir, I hear you very clearly."

***

What care I how black I be,
Twenty pounds will marry me;
If twenty won't forty shall,
I am my mother's bouncing girl!

***

Mistress Mary, quite contrary,
    How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle-shells,
    And pretty maids all in a row.

***

Gray Goose and Gander

Gray goose and gander,
    Waft your wings together,
And carry the good king's daughter
    Over the one-strand river.

What a nice image . . . and bold rhyme scheme! (Look up "strand" if necessary.)

***

The Queen of Love went out to walk,
And saw an archer shoot a hawk;
And when she saw the poor hawk die,
The Queen of Love was heard to sigh.

***

BELLEISLE

At the siege of Belleisle
I was there all the while,
All the while, all the while,
At the siege of Belleisle.

***

COME OUT TO PLAY

Girls and boys, come out to play,
    The moon doth shine as bright as day;
Leave your supper, and leave your sleep,
    And come with your playfellows into the street.
Come with a whoop, come with a call,
    Come with a good will or not at all.
Up the ladder and down the wall,
    A half-penny roll will serve us all.
You find milk, and I'll find flour,
    And we'll have a pudding in half an hour.

***

BANBURY CROSS

Ride a cock-horse
To Banbury Cross,
To see a fine lady
Upon a white horse.
Rings on her fingers,
Bells on her toes,
She shall have music
Wherever she goes.

This one supplied the title to a nice, old book, She Shall Have Music, I report on in my music books page. The illustrations for this rhyme are fun. Many paint the scene literally; others depict what the rhyme is for - dandling your child.

***

RIDE AWAY, RIDE AWAY

Ride away, ride away, Donald shall ride,
Ride to the city to get him a bride;

She shall be gentle, she shall be fair,
With gems on her fingers, and plumes in her hair.

This one appears just once in my Mother Goose library, in the 1933 Platt & Munk collection. Besides being about as nice as the Banbury Cross rhyme that provided the inspiration, it's got the one and only Donald in all of Goosedom. Take that, all you common ol' Jacks, Marys, and Tommys!

***

Leg over leg,
As the dog went to Dover;
When he came to a stile
Jump! he went over.

***

What's the news of the day,
Good neighbor, I pray?"
"They say a balloon.
Is gone up to the moon."

***

THE MERCHANTS OF LONDON

Hey diddle, dinketty, poppety, pet,
The merchants of London they wear scarlet;
Silk in the collar, and gold in the hem,
So merrily march, the merchantmen.

***

My uncle died a week ago
And left me all his riches:
A wooden leg; a feather bed;
And a pair of leather breeches;
A hammer and a rusty nail;
A jug without a handle;
A pussy cat without a tail,
And half a farthing candle.

***

Jeremiah, blow the fire,
Puff, puff, puff!
First you blow it gently,
Then you blow it rough.

***

One misty moisty morning,
When cloudy was the weather,
There I met an old man
Clothed all in leather;
Clothed all in leather,
With a strap below his chin.
How do you do? And how do you do?
And how do you do again?

***

I Think So; Don't You?

If many men knew
What many men know,
If many men went
Where many men go,
If many men did
What many men do,
The world would be better--
I think so; don't you?

If muffins and crumpets
Grew already toasted,
And sucking pigs ran about
Already roasted,
And the bushes were covered
With jackets all new,
It would be convenient--
I think so; don't you?

***

I SAW A SHIP A-SAILING

I saw a ship a-sailing,
A-sailing on the sea;
And, oh! it was all laden
With pretty things for thee!

There were comfits in the cabin,
And apples in the hold;
The sails were made of silk,
And the masts were made of gold.

The four and twenty sailors
That stood between the decks,
Were four and twenty white mice,
With chains about their necks.

The captain was a duck,
With a packet on his back;
And when the ship began to move,
The captain said, "Quack! quack!

***

IF ALL THE SEAS WERE ONE SEA

If all the seas were one sea,
What a great sea that would be!
And if all the trees were one tree,
What a great tree that would be!
And if all the axes were one axe,
What a great axe that would be!
And if all the men were one man,
What a great man he would be!
And if the great man took the great axe,
And cut down the great tree,
And let it fall into the great sea,
What a splish-splash that would be!

***

MY LADY WIND

My Lady Wind, my Lady Wind,
Went round about the house to find
    A chink to get her foot in.
She tried the key-hole in the door,
She tried the crevice in the floor,
    And drove the chimney soot in.

And then, one night, when it was dark,
She blew up such a tiny spark,
    That all the house was pothered:
From it she raised up such a flame
As flamed away to Belting Lane,
    And White Cross folks were smothered.

And thus when once, my little dears,
A whisper reaches itching ears,
    The same will come, you'll find:
Take my advice, restrain your tongue,
Remember what old Nurse has sung
    Of busy Lady Wind!

This is a nice example of a Mother Goose rhyme which teaches a lesson. I also like the rhyme scheme, and the wonderful assonance in the second half of verse two.

***

Penny and penny,
Laid up will be many;
Who will not save a penny
Shall never have any.

***

Apple-pie, pudding, and pancake,
All begins with A.

***

PAIRS OR PEARS

Twelve pairs hanging high,
Twelve knights riding by,
Each knight took a pear,
And left a dozen hanging there.

***

There was a girl in our town,
Silk an' satin was her gown,
Silk an' satin, gold an' velvet,
Guess her name--three times I've tell'd it.
(Ann)

***

MIND YOUR COMMAS

Every lady in this land
Has twenty nails, upon each hand
Five, and twenty on hands and feet;
All this is true, without deceit.

***

LOCK AND KEY

"I am a gold lock."
"I am a gold key."
"I am a silver lock."
"I am a silver key."
"I am a brass lock."
"I am a brass key."
"I am a lead lock."
"I am a lead key."
"I am a don lock."
"I am a don key."

(Hey, now we're getting a little personal!)

***

I wish I could rattle off The House That Jack Built. Notice how easy it is to recite the whole thing just looking at the last verse. Also notice the closed loop; the 11th and final verse introduces the "farmer sowing his corn":

This is the farmer sowing his corn,
That kept the cock that crowed in the morn,
That waked the priest all shaven an shorn,
That married the man all tattered and torn,
That kissed the maiden all forlorn,
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn,
That tossed the dog,
That worried the cat,
That killed the rat,
That eat the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.

Say, the "corn" is where the malt came from in the first place!

***

Wouldn't It Be Funny?

Wouldn't it be funny--
    Wouldn't it, now--
If the dog said, "Moo-oo"
And the cow said, "Bow-wow?"
If the cat sang and whistled,
And the bird said, "Mia-ow?"
Wouldn't it be funny--
    Wouldn't it, now?

***

POOR OLD ROBINSON CRUSOE!

Poor old Robinson Crusoe!
Poor old Robinson Crusoe!
    They made him a coat
    Of an old nanny goat;
I wonder how they could do so!
    With a ring-a-ting-tang,
    And a ring-a-ting-tang,
Poor old Robinson Crusoe!

***

Wibbleton and Wobbleton

From Wibbleton to Wobbleton is fifteen miles,
From Wobbleton to Wibbleton is fifteen miles,
From Wibbleton to Wobbleton,
From Wobbleton to Wibbleton,
From Wibbleton to Wobbleton is fifteen miles.

***

The girl in the lane, that couldn't speak plain,
    Cried, "Gobble, gobble, gobble";
The man on the hill that couldn't stand still
    Went hobble, hobble, hobble.

***

The Late Madam Fry

The late Madam Fry,
Wore heels an ell high,
And when she walked by me,
I thought I should die.

***

TWO DEAF MEN

Two deaf men went a mile to hear
    A dumb man make a speech;
A cripple climbed a pear-tree near,
    To get a rare-ripe peach.

This craziness is in the same vein as another bit of insanity in a short Grimm's story called The Ditmar Tale of Wonders:

"Three fellows who wanted to catch a hare, went on crutches and stilts; one of them was deaf, the second was blind, the third dumb, and the fourth could not stir a step. Do you know how it was done? First, the blind man saw the hare running across the field, the dumb one called to the deaf one, and the lame one seized it by the neck."

Well done, men!

***

A jolly fat miller is Poopleton Bun,
With elephant legs that weigh half a ton,
And face that is round and red as the sun.

***

DOCTOR FELL

I do not like thee, Doctor Fell;
The reason why I cannot tell;
But this I know and know full well,
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell!

***

NOBODY CARES

Tom tied a kettle to the tail of a cat,
Jill put a stone in the blind man's hat,
Bob threw his grandmother down the stairs--
And they all grew up ugly, and nobody cares.

***

St. Dunstan, as the story goes,
Once pulled the devil by the nose,
With red hot tongs, which made him roar,
That could be heard ten miles or more.

***

Who comes here?
"A grenadier."
What do you want?
"A pot of beer."
Where is your money?
"I've forgot."
Get you gone,
You drunken sot.

An alternative last line, "You can't have a drop," may make more sense, but is a lot less fun. My 1940 Book Of Knowledge changes the grenadier into "John O'Queer" and leaves out the alky-hol completely.

***

A Pretty Lass

It's once I courted as pretty a lass,
    As ever your eyes did see;
But now she's come to such a pass,
    She never will do for me.

She invited me to her own house,
    Where oft I'd been before;
And she tumbled me into the hogtub,
    And I'll never go there any more.

***

THE QUARREL

My little old man and I fell out;
I'll tell you what 't was all about,--
I had money and he had none,
And that's the way the noise begun.

***

Teeter, teeter, little Peter,
Took a wife and then he beat her.
Many times in common meter.

***

Jerry Hall,
He was so small,
A rat could eat him,
Hat and all.

***

You will find in my big index of Mother Goose first lines that some editors include a few rhymes by known writers. Why not? Somebody had to think up each of the anonymous ones. In that spirit, I hereby nominate a page from Dr. Seuss's ABC:

BIG M

little       m

Many mumbling mice
are making
midnight music
in the moonlight . . .

mighty nice

***

And finally, let me rectify a grievous oversight. Here's a rhyme that is not included in any Mother Goose collection that I know of. Joseph Jacobs used it as an introduction to the English fairy tale "The Magpie's Nest". Tell me this isn't pure, rollicking Mother Goose!

Once upon a time when pigs spoke rhyme
And monkeys chewed tobacco,
And hens took snuff to make them tough,
And ducks went quack, quack, quack, O!

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