As my husband and I were sitting at the dinner table, we started talking about these old verses and stories and how they impacted our childhood. I’m sure some of them are still being used today, since they were pretty much a bedtime event for children down through the ages. It’s funny what people talk about when they get old. I’m quite sure we didn’t suffer mentally from hearing them, but who knows? Maybe we did.
Some say Mother Goose was an actual person. She resided in Boston, Massachusetts and died in 1690. She was the second wife of Isaac Goose. Her name – Elizabeth Foster Goose. This claim was probably untrue, because many of the rhymes existed long before she did. Still there is a sight in Boston called the Old Granary Burying Ground, that holds a tombstone with her name on it. Many tourists come to visit her grave and some toss coins upon it for good luck. Whatever! My coins are too important to be throwing them away. People will come up with all kinds of truths to make a buck.
Anyway, the subject of our conversation had to do with the messages revealed in those early rhymes. Were they trying to scare their children to sleep? Think about it for a minute. For example: Jack and Jill is a rhyme about two kids who climb a hill, fall down once they reach the top. One cracks his skull, while the other came tumbling after him. Then there’s the one called “Ring Around the Rosie.” This began as a children’s game. It was representative of the Bubonic Plague and the rash that occurred with the disease. Rosies represent the flowers used to ward off the disease and ashes refer to the burning corpses. I suppose there might be some truth to that, but I prefer the other conjecture which refers to courtship and love – along with a rosebush. Falling down is just a reference to a playful action.
In any case, these rhymes were intended to be told at bedtime. How could a child fall asleep after hearing about such thing? Certainly, their dreams would pick up on these frightening things. Then of course are the stories. Most of them containing a hero/heroine who takes a trip into unknown territory, only to be confronted by wild animals and danger. I’m probably reading too much into all this, but I guess it makes more sense to send them off to dreamland with positive thoughts and knowing that they are loved and cared about – not only by their parents, but an everlasting heavenly Father.
“And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” Mark 9:36-37
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It’s pretty scary when you really think about it. I never knew the background behind Ring around the Rosies. But even Hansel and Gretel , and so many others. I loved them all, and read them to my own kids, What in the world is the matter with us all? Ha ha, It never hurt me, hopefully it never hurt my kids.
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I know, right. I liked those rhymes too and don’t feel they did any damage, but many today would be offended by them. Those who consider themselves woke, probably think the stories are endangering young minds. They’re probably called “woke” because they never got any sleep🥸
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😂
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Great history of Mother Goose. We have said the same thing. Another book that was my favorite as a child was A Child’s garden of verses.
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Did you write an article on this? While I was researching and writing, I thought of you.
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I probably did.
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I enjoy collecting old children’s books. It’s fun to see how the ending and photos of some of the stories (such as The Three Little Pigs) have changed and softened over the years. One of the songs that my Grandmother use to sing to me was a children’s song called “Babes In the Woods.” As a child, I loved the melody and the lyrics, and even though sad, it never bothered me. However, it is certainly not a song that I would sing to children today. Times have definitely changed.
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Yes they have. Some for the better. Some not so much.
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We are storytelling creatures. We learn about the world through stories. Children, in particular, love whimsical rhyming tales. The content, especially at bedtime, is less important than the fanciful pictures the words paint in their minds.
The Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes is just a collection of stories that someone published using the fantasy of an elderly lady flying on the back of a giant goose.
Where did the little rhymes come from? Each has a story of its own, and many of those tales are lost in time, which is probably just as well. Children are not ready for some of the stories about those stories.
The original audience for many of those rhymes were adults who would have known the meaning behind the nursery rhyme.
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