I enjoyed reading The Real Mother Goose. While I was familiar with some of the Mother Goose rhymes, there were so many that were new to me. The rhymes do vary in quality and relevance. (I'm not sure little ones need to be familiar with each and every poem in this collection in order to "know" their Mother Goose properly). Here are a few of my favorites:
The Tarts
The Queen of Hearts,
She made some tarts,
All on a summer's day;
The Knave of Hearts,
He stole the tarts,
And took them clean away.
The King of Hearts
Called for the tarts,
And beat the Knave full sore;
The Knave of Hearts
Brought back the tarts,
And vowed he'd steal no more. (107)
Sing a Song of Sixpence
Sing a song of sixpence,
a pocket full of rye;
Four-and-twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie!
When the pie was opened
The birds began to sing;
Was not 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 parlor,
Eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes;
When down came a blackbird
And snapped off her nose. (62)
The Bunch of Blue RibbonsDo you have a favorite Mother Goose rhyme?
Oh, dear what can the matter be?
Oh, dear what can the matter be?
Oh, dear what can the matter be?
Johnny's so long at the fair.
He promised to buy me a bunch of blue ribbons,
He promised to buy me a bunch of blue ribbons,
He promised to buy me a bunch of blue ribbons,
To tie up my bonny brown hair. (127)
© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
6 Comments on The Real Mother Goose (1916), last added: 2/9/2013
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I love these kinds of rhymes. The second one is one I remember very well from my childhood; and I used to sing it when I was bored... drove my folks nuts.
Recently, I had a few lines of it going through my head and didn't know where they came from and I told my parents about them; and Mum knew the rhyme but not fully. So, there we were piecing together a rhyme all three of us hadn't hear in 30 years... it was so much fun and we all ended up laughing about it! Ironically it was the second one you've got up on your blog; which is also my favourite from my childhood... it's so darn catchy :D
Have you ever read the Mother Goose stories that were written by L. Frank Baum, author of the Wizard of Oz?
you might enjoy these illustrations of Mother Goose. There are a few shots of the whole crib, and then details of each painting, with a link to the artist's page I copied. i copied from her book on Mother Goose, a gorgeous book: http://rocksbyemmanuelle.wordpress.com/non-rocks-paintings/crib/
I'd completely forgotten about this book until I saw the picture at the top of the post! Definitely one I read/was read to a lot when I was little. I think my favorite must have been "Sing a Song of Sixpence" as I can still recite it from memory!
I had to read two Mother Goose Collections for my Children's Lit class, and this is one of the ones I chose. I was surprised at how dark a lot of them were! I loved the illustrations, but the layout of the book really bothered me - it was as if they just tried to fit in as many rhymes as would fit on the pages! I also read a more modern collection that I enjoyed very much by Axel Scheffler and Alison Green. Less rhymes, but they are grouped together in a way that makes more sense.
How lovely to read all these! What fluffy feelings they bring to my heart. I absolutely love your blog and I admire what an ardent reader you are! I'm new to Blogger, but I already know that I want my blog to resemble yours :) What a creative and widespread book taste you have!