# Obscure nursery rhymes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 19, 2004, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-nursery-rhymes/270098 "2004-10-19T20:08:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Stainz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Stainz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stainz)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-nursery-rhymes/270098/41 "2004-10-20T20:48:05Z")
What about “Alligator Pie” … Alligator Pie Alligator Pie If I don’t get some I think I’m gonna die Take away my (I can’t remember) Take away my (rhymes with pie but I still can’t remember) But don’t take away my Alligator Pie Hee hee … that was my favourite book of rhymes when I was a kid … ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-nursery-rhymes/270098/42 "2004-10-20T22:27:18Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > You sure? I figured “sell her bed and lie upon dirt” was a metaphor for whoring around the village. Does anyone know? What did “Marjorie Daw” mean, way back when? Well, turns out the “woman of loose morals” interpretation is older than I’d thought, but I still think the KIDS would have been thinking of it as “slattern” while their parents thought “hooker.” ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-nursery-rhymes/270098/43 "2004-10-20T22:29:14Z")
LAST MINUTE ADDITION: In 1664 Samuel Pepys used the word “slut” playfully, without implications of morality, to describe his daughter. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-nursery-rhymes/270098/44 "2004-10-20T22:36:24Z")
> [@racinchikki](#): > > Well, turns out the “woman of loose morals” interpretation is older than I’d thought, but I still think the KIDS would have been thinking of it as “slattern” while their parents thought “hooker.” This lady walked into a bar, and she asked the bartender for a double entendre. So he gave her one! [rimshot] ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-nursery-rhymes/270098/45 "2004-10-21T00:27:13Z")
> [@vunderbob](#): > > My mother was a fan of twisted nursery rhymes. > > _Mary, Mary, quite contrary, > how does your garden grow? > 'With silver bells and cockle shells, > and one g_dd\*med tulip.’ > Jack and Jill went up the hill, > each with a dollar and a quarter. > Jill came down with two and a half; > they weren’t up there for water. > Little Miss Muffet > sat on her tuffet, > eating her curds and whey, > Along came Little Jack Horner and said, > “What you got in that bowl, bitch?” > \* > > Her favorite was the first one. It’s why her headstone has a single tulip on it. 😃 I’ll bet she’d have loved this one then: "Old Mother Hubbard Went to the cupboard To fetch her poor dog a bone. But when she leaned over, Old Rover, he drove her, The dog had a bone of his own! ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-nursery-rhymes/270098/46 "2004-10-21T02:02:11Z")
> [@Stainz](#): > > Alligator Pie > Alligator Pie > If I don’t get some > I think I’m gonna die > > Take away my (I can’t remember) > Take away my (rhymes with pie but I still can’t remember) > But don’t take away my Alligator Pie That would be [Alligator Pie](http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/lee/poem7.htm) (1974), by Toronto native [Dennis Lee](http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/lee/bio.htm): > [@](#): > > Alligator pie, alligator pie, > If I don’t get some I think I’m gonna die. > Give away the green grass, give away the sky, > But don’t give away my alligator pie. The other two verses start with “Alligator stew” and “Alligator Soup” respectively, with rhymes to match. [It’s a copyrighted work, so I won’t post all of the lyrics. You can find them at the first link above.] I first came across it in Toronto in the 1980’s when I visited the classroom of a friend who was teaching elementary school. We made a game out of it, encouraging her kids to extend the poem with new verses starting with things like “Alligator Cake” and “Alligator Bread”. We ended up with about ten verses. ---
**Author:** ![Reepicheep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@Reepicheep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reepicheep)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-nursery-rhymes/270098/47 "2004-10-21T08:12:03Z")
> [@Peter Morris](#): > > I saw a peacock with a fiery tail > I saw a comet rain down hail > I saw a cloud with ivy circled round > I saw a mighty oak creep upon the ground > I saw a spider swallowing a whale > I saw the ocean full of ale > I saw a glass sixteen foot deep > I saw a well full of men’s tears that weep > I saw their eyes all in a flame of fire > I saw a house as big as the moon and higher > I saw the sun even in the midst of night > I saw the man that saw this wondrous sight. > > (took me ages to work out that one) Here is how I “solved” it: I saw a peacock. With a fiery tail I saw a comet. Rain down hail I saw a cloud. With ivy circled round I saw a mighty oak. Creep upon the ground I saw a spider. Swallowing a whale I saw the ocean. Full of ale I saw a glass. Sixteen feet deep I saw a well. full of men’s tear that weep I saw their eyes. All in flames of fire I saw a house. As big as the moon and higher I saw the sun. Even in the midst of I saw the man that saw this wonderous sight. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-nursery-rhymes/270098/48 "2004-10-21T10:16:30Z")
correct ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-nursery-rhymes/270098/49 "2004-10-21T23:39:17Z")
Just got a book out of the library – _Mother Goose’s Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales_ (Legacy Press, 1967). Get a load of this one: Old Mother Goose, when She wanted to wander Would ride through the air On a very fine gander Mother Goose had a house 'T was built in a wood Where an owl at the door For sentinel stood This is her son Jack, A plain-looking lad, He is not very good, Nor yet very bad. She sent him to market, A live goose he bought, “Here, mother,” says he, “It will not go for nought.” Jack’s goose and her gander Grew very fond, They’d both eat together, Or swim in one pond. Jack found him one morning As I have been told, His goose had laid him An egg of pure gold. Jack rode to his mother, The news for to tell, She called him a good boy And said it was well. Jack sold his gold egg To a rogue of a Jew, Who cheated him out of The half of his due. Then Jack went a-courting A lady so gay, As fair as the lily, And sweet as the May. The Jew and the Squire Came behind his back, And began to belabour The sides of poor Jack. And then the gold egg Was thrown into the sea, When Jack he jumped in And got it back presently. The Jew got the goose, Which he vowed he would kill, Resolving at once His pockets to fill. Jack’s mother came in, And caught the goose soon, And mounting its back, Flew up to the moon. I guess I know why they didn’t teach us **that** one at my nursery school! ---
**Author:** ![MisterThyristor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@MisterThyristor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MisterThyristor)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-nursery-rhymes/270098/50 "2004-10-22T10:07:47Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > How about: > > Hickory dickory dock > A cow ran up the clock > The clock collapsed Or: Hickory dickory dock Two mice ran up the clock. The clock struck one – The other one got away. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-nursery-rhymes/270098/51 "2004-10-22T14:09:38Z")
since “re-styled” nursery rhymes seem welcome in this thread, I’ll include my own (it’s from a book of children’s poems my two older daughters had when they were little): There was an old woman who lived in a shoe Which suited her fine when the winter winds blew But when the hot summer sun Got too much to handle She packed up the kids And moved to a sandal. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-nursery-rhymes/270098/52 "2004-10-24T00:34:08Z")
Well, if we’re going to be like that . . . 😉 "If seven whores without their drawers "Were lying on the sand, “Do you think,” the Walrus said, “That we could raise a stand?” “I doubt it,” said the Carpenter, “But wouldn’t it be grand!” And all the while the dirty sod Was coming in his hand! ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-nursery-rhymes/270098/53 "2004-10-24T19:56:02Z")
Little Miss Muffet Sat on a tuffet Eating her lox and bagels. Along came a spider And sat down beside her And said, “What, no cream cheese?” There was a girl Who had a curl Right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, She was very, very good, But when she was bad, she was great! There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children, she didn’t know what to do. Obviously. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-nursery-rhymes/270098.md?page=2)