Last night I started singing The Farmer in the Dell song to Mallory. You know…”The farmer in the dell, the farmer in the dell, hi-ho the derry-o, the farmer in the dell” Ed looked at me like I grew a second head and said “Is there also a Farmer in the Intel and a Farmer in the Mac?” Apparently he had never heard the song before, or at least he didn’t think it had the word dell in it. So, I googled “farmer in the dell” this morning. I came upon this site. It has all the lyrics to nursery rhymes. Have you ever read all the lyrics to Farmer in the Dell? Kind of a weird song.
I started to look at the lyrics of some of the nursery rhymes I remembered and noticed a violent and mean theme! I don’t think TV is corrupting our kids…it’s nursery rhymes!! Take a look:
Little Bunny Foo Foo
hoppin' through the forest,
scoopin' up the field mice
and boppin' em on the head.
And down came the Blue Fairy, and she said: Little Bunny FooFoo
I don't want to see you
scoopin' up the field mice
and boppin' em on the head.
And now I'll give you three chances, and if you keep it up,
I'll turn you into a goon.
Three blind mice,
See how they run!
They all ran after a farmer's wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife.
Did you ever see such a sight in your life,
As three blind mice?
Hush-a-bye, baby,
in the tree top.
When the wind blows,
the cradle will rock.
When the bough breaks,
the cradle will fall,
And down will come baby,
cradle and all.
Fee! Fie! Foe! Fum!
I smell the blood of an Englishman.
Be he 'live, or be he dead,
I'll grind his bones to make my bread.
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!
Fortunately, there are many more that have much better subject matters..and hey, they rhyme.
I am glad we found the web site though. Now Ed and I can do the 5 little piggies with Mallory’s cute little toes with the right words. The site also gives the history behind some of the rhymes, which can explain a lot.
