Nursery Rhymes…

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I was sitting in the hall yesterday when the babysitter next door decided to blast nursery rhymes to entertain her ward. It was then i realise how morbid nursery rhymes really are…

1) Humpty Dumpty: Suicidal humpty dumpty who fell to his death.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men

Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

                                  

2) London Bridge is falling down: The collapse of the London Bridge (there are more stanzas which record the countless failed attempts to (re)build the bridge. But you get the idea.) 

London Bridge is falling down,

Falling down, falling down,

London Bridge is falling down,

My fair lady. 

                        

 

3) Sing a song of six pence: A king who has a frightful meal and a maid who has her nose ravaged by a vengeful(?) bird (possibly headed to the garden after singing for the king) - mind you, her nose wasn’t pecked AT, it was pecked OFF, that makes a whole lotta difference.

Sing a song of six pence, a pocket full of rye,

Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened the birds began to sing,

Oh 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!

                          

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Now, that’s funny isn’t it? There’s always a big whoo-haa over protecting a child’s innocence and not exposing the fella to violence among other vices. But here we are, singing songs of suicide (humpty dumpty), the folly of men’s architectural capabilities (london bridge), vengeance and savagery (six pence) without even knowing it.

Then we get sooo very pleased when the child can recite these nursery rhymes from memory…praising the kid saying that the fella is without a doubt “the smartest kid in Singapore, JB and some say Batam”

Just what in the merlion’s spit are we teaching the next generation?! :)

 

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