Sing a Song of Sixpence

Encyclopedia : S : SI : SIN : Sing a Song of Sixpence

See also Sing a Song of Sixpence, a Sesame Beginnings book.

Walter Crane illustration of the maid hanging out the clothes

Sing a Song of Sixpence is a well known English rhyme, the origins of which are uncertain; two main competing theories circulating on the Internet are that:

It first appeared in Volume II of Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published around 1744 [link], and
It was written, perhaps by George Stevens [link], a literary critic, to satirize the poetry of Henry James Pye, the British Poet Laureate from 1790-1813 [link] [link] .

Adding to the confusion, a spoof origin posted on the Lost Legends section of Snopes.com - that the song was originally used by Blackbeard's pirates to attract new members - has apparently been accepted as the real origin by some people.

The probability is that the rhyme predates the alleged 1744 publication, perhaps to mediaeval times.#redirect

The Straight Dope, in its analysis of the rhyme, states:

according to the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, an Italian cookbook from 1549 (translated into English in 1598) actually contains a recipe "to make pies so that birds may be alive in them and flie out when it is cut up." The ODNR also cites a 1723 cook who describes this as an earlier practice, the idea being that the birds cause "a diverting Hurley-Burley amongst the Guests."

The line "Four and Twenty blackbirds baked in a pie" is thought by some to be the origin of 420's significance within cannabis culture.

Lyrics

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.

Now, 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!

An alternate version, popularised by Shari Lewis on her PBS series Lamb Chop's Play-Along, is:

Sing a song of six pants

With pockets full of rye

Would you put rye bread in all your pants

You wouldn't and neither would I!

External links

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.