For anyone who doesn't know the rhyme CROOKED in this instance is pronounced KROOK-ID as opposed to KROOKT
'There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse
and they all lived together in a little crooked house.'
I always loved this nursery rhyme as a child. I had a beautiful nursery rhyme book and it had a gorgeous drawing of the crooked man with his crooked cat and crooked house etc. I used to imagine what it might be like to live in such a house but, yet again, all is not as innocent as it seems.
It is believed that this rhyme has its origins back in the reign of Charles I.
The crooked man is reputed to be Scotland's General Sir Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven who was one of the Covenanters who signed the Covenant in 1638 securing religious and political freedom for Scotland. The crooked stile represents the border between Scotland and England and living together in the crooked house refers to the fact that Scotland and England had agreed to live in 'harmony'. The rhyme reflects the animosity which existed between the two countries around that time.
Personally, whilst the history behind the rhyme is very interesting, I prefer to imagine life in a little crooked house with little crooked tables and chairs and cups...
 |
| There was a crooked man |
He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse
and they all lived together in a little crooked house.'
I always loved this nursery rhyme as a child. I had a beautiful nursery rhyme book and it had a gorgeous drawing of the crooked man with his crooked cat and crooked house etc. I used to imagine what it might be like to live in such a house but, yet again, all is not as innocent as it seems.
It is believed that this rhyme has its origins back in the reign of Charles I.
The crooked man is reputed to be Scotland's General Sir Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven who was one of the Covenanters who signed the Covenant in 1638 securing religious and political freedom for Scotland. The crooked stile represents the border between Scotland and England and living together in the crooked house refers to the fact that Scotland and England had agreed to live in 'harmony'. The rhyme reflects the animosity which existed between the two countries around that time.
Personally, whilst the history behind the rhyme is very interesting, I prefer to imagine life in a little crooked house with little crooked tables and chairs and cups...
Comments
~Lynn
So great to meet you through the AZ Challenge! I'm looking forward to your posts!
Now if it ever comes up in conversation I can wow people with my knowledge of the history of nursery rhymes.
Andrina
A MIND*S EYE
Hi Betsy and thanks for dropping by. I didn't know so many nursery rhymes had quite 'dark' origins until I started looking into it.
Enjoy the challenge!
Linda - this is probably my favourite nursery rhyme out of all of them too.
Daisy - I love this one too although I prefer to think of it exactly as it's written now that I know its history. It is fascinating though!
Andrina - I shall keep my fingers crossed that somehow it does come up in conversation and you can show off your new found knowledge :-))
Claire's Writing Log
Twitter: @ClaireGoverts
best,
MOV
http://wordcut.blogspot.com
(I am doing a to z with a travel theme)
Good luck with the challenge!
Hi Colin, you're absolutely right. I think people do tend to try to make more of things than maybe had been intended originally. I find the same thing with poetry, painting etc.
For this challenge I have tried to choose the nursery rhymes which historians and folklorists have previously looked into to find the historical connections. Equally there are many others out there which were purely made up to entertain children, either through alliteration such as 'Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling', a rhyme for which no-one can find any historical connections or onomatopoeia where they learn about animal sounds.
Even when I know the story behind a nursery rhyme, to be honest, I still like to take them at face value in the same way that I did when I was a child :-)
Just off to look at your blog :)
RJRdaydreamer