(no subject)

[rebness]

For various tedious writing reasons, I was thinking about school playground rhymes today and variations thereof in international circles. Actually, I wonder if playground rhymes vary throughout even Britain-- a lot of rhymes I knew as a child came from Victorian rhymes and many focused on aspects of Maritime life. I can't remember much from the papers I read this morning, but I can recite the verses of my favourite childhood rhymes, such as:

The Big Ships Sails on the Alley-Alley-oh
On the Mountain There Stands a Lady
The Farmer Wants a Wife
Oranges and Lemons
Ring-a-ring-o'-Rosies

If Ring-a-ring-o'-Rosies does reference the Black Death as suggested, it's strange how such a sinister and dark rhyme is still celebrated by children in the twenty-first century. The Big Ship is, well, obviously about LILIO shipping. It's a really interesting oral tradition in an age where if things are not written down, they tend to be forgotten. As a child, they're nothing more than something to skip to or to pass the lunch break, but it's interesting to look back on them now and see how something as seemingly nonsensical as Goosey Goosey Gander turns out to be about religious intolerance.

One of the most sinister things for me in Nineteen Eighty-Four was the use of the old rhyme Oranges and Lemons. Orwell references it again and again with the same sense of nostalgia an adult may remember childhood rhymes that seemed so innocent. I couldn't for the life of me remember the last couple of lines of the rhyme that Orwell kept back throughout the narrative, but when they're revealed as here comes the candle to light you to bed/here comes the chopper, to chop off your head the singular horror that Smith faces was inextricably bound up in that momentary sense of panic I remember experiencing as a child when the rhyme ended in the playground and we were chased. I think the twisting of something so bound up with childhood imagery to illustrate that horrible moment in the book is extremely effective.

So, for the purpose of both research for a Super Sekrit Project, but also for a good read, please to tell me about childhood rhymes you remember from your part of the world, or even this island for you fellow UKers. If you know of the history/social ramifications behind any, do let me know. It's interesting, innit?

Comments

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

Nope! You've got no idea what I meant! Good times. I might make fun of you now.