Why We Should Study Nursery Rhymes
Mother Goose is Incomprehensible and Violent Why Bother Reading It?
For many people today, Mother Goose makes no sense and seems too violent to warrant reading to our children. Yet, every year finds new editions of Mother Goose with new illustrations. It is rare that a child doesn’t learn at least one rhyme before kindergarten. What are nursery rhymes, who created them, and why do we still read them today (and should we still read them)?
Categories of Nursery Rhymes
According to The Annotated Mother Goose “They are the beloved heritage of Nobody-Really-Knows how many countries or how many centuries” (11-12). Some rhymes are easy to decipher, they are songs that your average mom or dad sang to their children while bouncing them on their knee. Other verses are rhymes made up for their children to sing while playing the simple games played in the past such as hoop-rolling, jump-rope, and stick-horses. Other rhymes are teaching rhymes that teach children to count or learn their letters.
Any Mom who rocks a child to sleep will tell you that some nursery rhymes work as lullabies or prayers. While other rhymes certainly give evidence of being the result of drinking games.
There are still more categories for rhymes, riddles, tongue twisters, verse proverbs, and even weather lore can be found in the form of nursery rhymes. And finally, the category many people would put all nursery rhymes into: pure nonsense.
Meaning Behind the Rhymes
Of course, over the years, people have come up with various scenarios to explain this or that rhyme. Many rhymes are given historical backgrounds and political intrigue as their foundation. However, we are cautioned that while this is fascinating and exciting “some students may, perhaps, have been a little overzealous in reading meaning into rhymes where no meaning was ever intended” (13).
Why We Should Read Nursery Rhymes to Children
Should we read these nonsensical, violent, or cruel rhymes to children? Walter de la Mare wrote that “they are not only crammed with vivid little scenes and objects and living creatures, but, however fantastic and nonsensical they may be, they are a direct shortcut into poetry itself.”
Jim Trelease, author of The Read-Aloud-Handbook, writes that “We don’t turn to Mother Goose for the plot. We turn to her because she takes all those sounds, syllables, endings, and blendings, and mixes them in with the rhythm and rhyme of language, for us to feed to a child who already takes delight in rocking back and forth in his crib repeating a single syllable over and over. ‘Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba...’”
Most collections of Mother Goose that are published today are edited so that the most objectionable rhymes are absent. So find a copy of Mother Goose and read to your children. If you are curious about a particular nursery rhyme’s meaning or history, there are articles about the following nursery rhymes:
- Baa, Baa Black Sheep
- Goosey, Goosey Gander
- Hey Diddle, Diddle
- Little Jack Horner
- Mary, Mary Quite Contrary
- Pop, Goes the Weasel
- Pussycat, Pussycat
- Ride a Cock Horse
- Ring Around the Rosy
Sources
Baring Gould, William S and Ceil. The Annotated Mother Goose. Bramhall House, 1962.Christensen, James C.
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