As soon as the child starts to mumble, the first thing that parents start is teach them nursery rhymes. Simple words when conjoined together sounds nice and when sung as a rhyme reverberates in the ears forever. But will you believe that many of these nursery rhyme has an inherent meaning in themselves. Some meanings are funny while some are politically intriguing and based on some real incident or a person. Here are some nursery rhymes and their meanings that kids like and recite non-stop and stay merrily forever.
Mary had a little lamb
This rhyme was inspired by a true incident when a girl Mary sawyer took her pet lamb to school. It so happened that her brother has asked her in a funny mood whether she would take her lovable lamb to school and she proved to him that she can do the same. And on the very day, there was a noble man who visited the school and was deeply touched by Mary’s act of taking the lamb she loved the most to school and was even more amazed to see the lamb dutifully following her. He then visited Mary the next day on a horseback and handed her the paper that contained the rhyme verse. And this man was none other than John Roulstone.
Little Bo beep
This rhyme is famous for its story telling where the little girl Bo Beep feels sad about her losing her sheep and she is finding a way to bring it back to her. The first recorded manuscript of this rhyme was found around 1805. The interesting fact is that there used to be children hide and seek game known as Bo Beep around 16th century and shake sphere too has mentioned about the same in his King Lear. This rhyme was later extended to many versus so that children enjoy singing and acting as Bo-Beep.
Baa Baa Black Sheep
This rhymeis the first rhyme that was recorded and played back when the tape recorder was invented. Similarly this rhyme was the first to be recorded on computer. Children are taught to sing this rhyme in the same tone as that of Twinkle twinkle little star. While this sounds simple, some politically diplomatic minds associate this rhyme to the wool tax that was once collected in the 12th century. This rhyme is the simplest rhyme for children to learn as well.
Well, it is really a new experience when one learns about what each nursery rhyme conveys. Every nursery rhyme and their meaning conveys one fact that each of these rhyme was written to enlighten the future generation about their past. Some feel that these rhymes were written with simple intentions to entertain children, but some are interested in associating the political disturbances that were widely present in those era to these rhymes creating altogether a new inherent meaning. But leaving the meaning aside, one must admit that nursery rhymes have their own feel good factor and energy. After all everyone likes to clap their hand and tap their feet when their children shout baa baa black sheep in their nursery.
