The creators behind timeless verses

Who said Humpty Dumpty was an egg? Stories of 10 ageless nursery rhymes

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We have been singing the same nursery rhymes to little kids for years and years, often without considering the words we are repeating. Some of these songs, narrating the adventures of farm animals, stars, and itsy bitsy spiders, have very cryptic lyrics that we learned as infants and never again questioned. Who wrote these rhymes? How long have humans been singing them to one another? In this article, we unveil the stories behind 10 timeless verses.

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Do you know the five stanzas of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star?" Very few people do. The ultimate lullaby belongs to the opening verses of "The Star", a poem written in 1806 by English author Jane Taylor. The poem was originally published in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection by her and her sister Ann.

The couplets are set to the very famous French melody officially called "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman" ("Ah, will I tell you, mom"). It’s a universal classic from 1761; Mozart himself had composed a set of variations based on the melody. However, it wasn’t until thirty years after the Taylor sisters’ publication that another book proposed singing their poem to the catchy music. The nursery rhyme "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" uses a variant of the same tune.

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Nowhere in the poem is it mentioned that Humpty Dumpty is an anthropomorphic egg. The lyrics are enigmatic and many attempts have been made to link them to historical figures, like kings or battle heroes. The first version of the rhyme appeared in writing in 1797 in Juvenile Amusements, a music collection by English composer Samuel Arnold. It is believed that "Humpty Dumpty" was 18th-century slang for a clumsy person.

Why an egg, then? Some believed the poem was a riddle to which the answer was that Humpty Dumpty was not a human, but some fragile thing. It was none other than Lewis Carrol, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, who first depicted Humpty Dumpty explicitly as looking like an egg. The character appears on a wall in the popular book’s 1871 sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, where Alice meets him and points out how much like an egg he looks.

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"Mary Had a Little Lamb" is based on a true story. It was first published in 1830 by American writer Sarah Josepha Hale. She was a teacher who schooled girls and boys in her hometown, Newport, New Hampshire. One day, a student named Mary showed up accompanied by her pet lamb. This incident, the children’s reactions, and the obvious affection between Mary and her lamb —who "followed her everywhere she went"—, eventually inspired Hale to write a three-stanza poem called Mary’s Lamb.

In the same year, a composer from Boston, Lowell Mason, rearranged the poem and set it to music to have a singable version. We still use the words Mason wrote, but the melody we sing today is not the one he composed. We usually sing it to an 1867 tune known as "Merrily We Roll Along."

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For context about how old this song is, Mozart wouldn’t be born until 50 years after its earliest known version. "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" appears in a 1706 opera by English writer and composer Thomas d'Urfey. The play, The Kingdom of the Birds, included a song called "In the Fields in Frost and Snow", which was a very near version of the song we know today, down to the iconic "Here a Boo, there a Boo, every-where a Boo".

It is unknown whether this was already a popular song that d’Urfey quoted in his play. What we know, though, is that after his opera the song became very widespread, and eventually became a folk song with varying versions in Britain, Ireland, and North America.

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This one was conceived from the start as a song. The rhyme has only four lines. The first printing of the song is dated 1852 and attributed to author and teacher Eliphalet Oram Lyte. The melody, however, was very different from the one that was later popularized. It wasn’t until 1881 that the tune as we know it today was attached to the words.

The current version of Row, Row, Row Your Boat is intended to be sung as a four-part round canon. That means that the melody of each line can be combined to harmonize with any of the others. That’s why it’s usually taught to children and popularly used to teach choir singing.

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Children from as far back as the Late Middle Ages might have already been singing this song. The earliest printed version of nursery rhymes about the London Bridge falling appeared in England in 1744 in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, though the rhyme may have been sung long before this.

There are many myths behind the lyrics of this song, from claiming that the bridge falls because of Viking attacks, to stating that the "fair Lady" mentioned is Virgin Mary.

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This beloved nursery folk song was only born in 1938 when it was published as "The Bus" in the American Childhood magazine. Verna Hills, born in 1898 in Boston, conceived this tune to distract the little ones during long bus rides. That’s why the repetitive yet catchy lyrics enlist parts of the moving bus while adding some mimic or sound to go with it. "The Bus" eventually became a folk song also popular in Canada, the UK, and Australia.

The song is believed to be based on "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush", an old English nursery rhyme about a group of young ones going about everyday chores. This one had been set to music from an opera published in mid-1700s London. Its melody and rhythm are very similar to the one we know today.

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Also known as the "Spider Song," this rhyme has received different names throughout English-speaking countries. Its earliest appearance seems to have been in Arthur Walbridge North’s 1910 book Camp and Camino in Lower California, except that it mentions a "blooming, bloody spider" instead.

In varying versions and regions, the spider has also been called "eency weency" and "teeny weeny." Other countries added further variations to one of the most famous nursery rhymes ever. In France, it’s a gypsy spider; in the Netherlands, it’s a beetle; and in Norway, the spider is called Peter.

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The timeless finger-counting nursery rhyme was designed to teach children coordination and dexterity. Famously, the words match the narration of the fates of 5 pigs while folding the fingers on a child’s hand one by one.

The first time the poem appeared in writing was in 1728, in a medley called The Nurses Song. Since then, over the decades, varying versions have been written. Some say it may have been inspired by "To Market, To Market," also known as "To Market, To Market, to Buy a Fat Pig," another folk nursery rhyme with a first version that dates back as far as 1598.

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You probably have noticed that the iconic ABC song uses the same melody as the aforementioned "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"; Ah! vous dirai-je, maman. However, the lyrics were not applied to the melody until 1835, when Boston publisher Charles Bradlee decided to borrow the familiar tune to sing the alphabet to it, as a strategy to help children learn letters through a catchy and well-known melody. It became a preschool classic, and it has been adapted to be used in many languages other than English.

EERIE TALES

10 Chilling Ghost Stories That Will Haunt Your Imagination

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Told quietly around a campfire, or whispered before bedtime, stories of the supernatural have always been an important part of human culture, captivating our imaginations and sending shivers down our spines. From ancient folklore to modern tales of the unknown, ghost stories continue to intrigue and terrify us.

Join us on a chilling journey through some of the best ghost stories out there. But beware, some of these might linger in your thoughts long after reading this article.

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Hampton Court Palace in England boasts a chilling resident: the Gray Lady. Legend has it that she is the ghost of Sybil Penn, an English courtier who was a nurse and teacher to Edward VI of England and personal attendant of Elizabeth I of England. After her monument at St Mary's Church in Hampton was moved in 1829, several stories regarding her figure became popular in the area. It was said the noise of a spinning wheel was heard at Hampton Court, and that soon after a closed-up room with a spinning wheel was discovered. Visitors have reported glimpses of her ghostly figure, dressed in gray, wandering the hallways and even crossing the palace's famous Haunted Gallery.

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Originating in the early 19th century in Tennessee, the Bell Witch legend tells of a vengeful spirit tormenting the Bell family from 1817 to 1821. Mysterious noises, physical attacks, and eerie whispers plagued the household. According to the Bell family, the otherworldly entity was able to speak, shapeshift, and even be in more than one place at a time, akin to the poltergeists of German folklore. The haunting became so infamous that it is said that even President Andrew Jackson visited. After witnessing an excessively boastful "witch slayer" get beaten and humiliated by the entity, he allegedly exclaimed: "By the eternal, boys, I never saw so much fun in all my life. This beats fighting the British."

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The legendary Tower of London is not just a fortress of stone and history—according to popular tradition, it is also home to several spectral inhabitants. Being a place with such a grisly history, its walls bearing witness to countless murders and executions, this should not come as a surprise. Guards and visitors have reported sightings of many ghostly apparitions that correspond with historical figures who suffered gory fates within the Tower, like a headless Anne Boleyn or the tortured screams of Guy Fawkes. Some claim these apparitions bring an ominous forewarning of impending tragedy.

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The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the American Civil War, and its echoes reverberate beyond the pages of history. Many visitors have reported eerie occurrences—apparitions, phantom sounds of battle, and ghostly soldiers. Some believe the intense emotions of the battle left residual energy etched into the landscape. The bloodiest portions of the battlefield are said to be especially haunted, and spots like the macabrely named Slaughter Pen and Devil’s Den are mentioned again and again in stories about ghostly apparitions in the area.

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Raynham Hall in Norfolk, England, is home to the infamous Brown Lady, whose spectral figure has terrified onlookers for centuries. Legend has it that Lady Dorothy Walpole (sister of the first British Prime Minister), accused of infidelity and locked by her husband in the family home until her death, roams the halls to this day. In 1936, photographers allegedly captured her ghostly image descending the grand staircase, solidifying her bone-chilling legacy.

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The Okiku doll, residing in the Mannenji temple in Japan, is not an ordinary children's toy, at least according to modern Japanese folklore. Legend has it that the spirit of the deceased original owner of the doll—a little girl also named Okiku—resides within it. The hair on the doll is said to grow mysteriously, and those who look into her eyes can get a glimpse of the girl’s tormented soul.

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The history of French royalty is ripe with macabre tales that delve into the darker side of human behavior. So, it should not come as a surprise that the opulent Palace of Versailles, once home to monarchs and courtesans, harbors more than just royalty gossip. Visitors and staff have reported ghostly encounters, from the restless spirits of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI to the spectral echoes of the French Revolution. There’s even a claim of time travel! In any case, the sumptuous halls of the palace hold far more secrets than they seem.

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The White House, the epicenter of U.S. politics, is rumored to host more than just the living representatives of the American people. Past presidents and First Ladies have reported ghostly sightings, including Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and William McKinley. A particularly frightening case happened during the Taft administration when the ghost of an unidentified 15-year-old boy—called the "Thing"—instilled terror among the domestic staff. According to a military aide, the ghost often materialized as "a slight pressure on the shoulder, as if someone were leaning over your shoulder to see what you might be doing." Eventually, Taft himself intervened, threatening to fire anyone who repeated stories about the haunting.

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Considered one of the most haunted places in New Orleans, the LaLaurie Mansion has a dark past associated with Madame Delphine LaLaurie's gruesome crimes. Slaves and servants were tortured and killed within its walls, and historians suspect that she even abused and tortured her daughters. After the mansion was set ablaze in 1834, many of the atrocious crimes committed under its roof were revealed to the shock of the public, and Madame Delphine had to precipitously flee from the city.

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A seemingly innocent mass-produced painting, "The Crying Boy," gained notoriety in the 1980s, after an Essex firefighter claimed that copies of the painting were often found among the debris of incinerated houses, unscathed. Rumors of a curse soon spread, leading many to believe that the painting brought misfortune and personal tragedy to its owners. Others even maintained that the eyes of the crying child followed them as they moved.