Hear What Ma’am Goose Says!
“My dear little blossoms, there are now in this world, and always will be, a great many grannies besides myself, both in petticoats and pantaloons, some a deal younger to be sure; but all monstrous wise, and of my own family name. These old women, who never had a chick nor child of their own, but who always know how to bring up other people’s children, will tell you with very long faces, that my enchanting, quieting, soothing volume, my all-sufficient anodyne for cross, peevish, won’t-be-comforted little bairns, ought to be laid aside for more learned books, such as they could select and publish. Fudge! I tell you that all their banterings can’t deface my beauties, nor their wise pratings equal my wiser prattlings; and all imitators of my refreshing songs might as well write a new Billy Shakespeare as another Mother Goose; we two great poets were born together, and we shall go out of the world together. No, no, my Melodies will never die, While nurses sing or babies cry. “– From the preface to The Only True Mother Goose Melodies (1843)
And you thought we were through with poetry for a while. My favorite nursery rhyme is one that Organizer Daughter altered when she was little:
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and taco shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.
The Mary in the rhyme was either Mary, Queen of Scots or Bloody Mary (Elizabeth I’s half-sister) or Mary Magdalene. And the silver bells and cockle shells are either decorations on a dress or instruments of torture. The pretty maids? Mary’s ladies in waiting or the guillotine. Take your pick. Admit it. Don’t you like our version better than the original? Taco shells are so harmless, and they have no hidden meaning as far as I know.
For more information on how to celebrate Mother Goose Day, go to the Mother Goose Society website.
For recipes, crafts and coloring pages, try mother goose.com, or go to this Nursery Rhyme page for more educational links.
I love the hidden meanings in many English things. Take for example the childhood song, Ring Around the Rosies. The real meaning of it is this:
The symptoms of the plague included a rosy red rash in the shape of a ring on the skin (Ring around the rosy). Pockets and pouches were filled with sweet smelling herbs ( or posies) which were carried due to the belief that the disease was transmitted by bad smells. The term “Ashes Ashes” refers to the cremation of the dead bodies!
I spent three months in England and learned so many of these little things, or even the real meaning of words like “threshold.” It really was a bar across the bottom of a door to hold in the thresh that made up the floor. It was fascinating to learn all these words that I knew as one thing really had a different meaning.
Thanks for bringing up the memory!
🙂
Kate
The only problem is the taco shells in such close proximity to the silver bells (Taco Bell’s logo) makes it almost seem like subliminal advertising. Still beats torture though. Now, if you want to get into Grimm’s Fairy Tales, there we have some bizarre imagery and inside jokes that just leave you scratching your head. Leave Disney out of it and look at it in its original version and you’ll see what I mean.