Mary Had a Little Lamb
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Mary Had a Little Lamb" Roud #7622 |
|
| Written by | Sarah Josepha Hale |
|---|---|
| Published | 1830 |
| Written | USA |
| Language | English |
| Form | Nursery Rhyme |
"Mary Had a Little Lamb" is an English language nursery rhyme of nineteenth-century American origin. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7622.
Contents |
[edit] Background
The nursery rhyme was first published (as opposed to written) as an original poem by Sarah Josepha Hale on May 24, 1830, and was inspired by an actual incident.
As a girl, Mary Sawyer (later Mrs. Mary Tyler) kept a pet lamb, which she took to school one day at the suggestion of her brother. A commotion naturally ensued. Mary recalled:
- "Visiting school that morning was a young man by the name of John Roulstone, a nephew of the Reverend Lemuel Capen, who was then settled in Sterling. It was the custom then for students to prepare for college with ministers, and for this purpose Mr. Roulstone was studying with his uncle. The young man was very much pleased with the incident of the lamb; and the next day he rode across the fields on horseback to the little old schoolhouse and handed me a slip of paper which had written upon it the three original stanzas of the poem..."[1]
There are two competing theories on the origin of this poem. One holds that Roulstone wrote the first four lines and that the final twelve lines, more moralistic and much less childlike than the first, were composed by Sarah Josepha Hale; the other is that Hale was responsible for the entire poem.
Mary Sawyer's house, located in Sterling, Massachusetts, was destroyed by arson on August 12, 2007.[2] A statue representing Mary's Little Lamb stands in the town center. The Redstone School, which was built in 1798, was purchased by Henry Ford and relocated to a churchyard on the property of Longfellow's Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Massachusetts.
[edit] Text
[edit] Song
In the 1830s, Lowell Mason set the nursery rhyme to a melody adding repetition in the verses:
Mary had a little lamb,
little lamb, little lamb,
Mary had a little lamb,
whose fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went,
Mary went, Mary went,
and everywhere that Mary went,
the lamb was sure to go.
It followed her to school one day
school one day, school one day,
It followed her to school one day,
which was against the rules.
It made the children laugh and play,
laugh and play, laugh and play,
it made the children laugh and play
to see a lamb at school.
And so the teacher turned it out,
turned it out, turned it out,
And so the teacher turned it out,
but still it lingered near,
And waited patiently about,
patiently about, patiently about,
And waited patiently about
till Mary did appear.
"Why does the lamb love Mary so?"
Love Mary so? Love Mary so?
"Why does the lamb love Mary so,"
the eager children cry.
"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know."
The lamb, you know, the lamb, you know,
"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know,"
the teacher did reply.
[edit] In popular culture
 |
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2008) |
 |
Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. |
In music:
- Thomas Edison recited the first stanza of this poem to test his invention of the phonograph in 1877, making this the second audio recording to be successfully made and played back. In 1923, Edison's friend Henry Ford moved a building to the grounds of the Wayside Inn from Sterling, Massachusetts, which he believed was the original schoolhouse mentioned in this poem.
- Chubby Checker's first hit, "The Class", featured vocal impressions of the song as it would be performed by Elvis Presley, the Chipmunks, Cozy Cole, and his own near-namesake, Fats Domino.
- Paul McCartney and Wings released a version of the song, with a new melody by McCartney, as a single in 1972.
- British Glam-rock band Slade used a reference to this rhyme on their song "Did yer mama ever tell ya".
- The nu metal band, Korn, used this rhyme in their song "Shoots and Ladders" which talks about the supposed sinister meaning behind nursery rhymes.
- Blues artist Buddy Guy combined it with elements from other nursery school rhymes. This version of the song was later covered by fellow bluesman Stevie Ray Vaughan on his album Texas Flood.
- The alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkins included a variation of this nursery rhyme in their song X.Y.U. from their album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, with the lines "Mary had a little lamb/Her face was white as snow/And everywhere that Mary went/I was sure to go/Now Mary's got a problem/And Mary's not a stupid girl/Mary's got some deep shit/Mary does not forget..."
- Mark Alburger's "Mary Variations" (1985) transform the tune into a Chinese pentatonic scale, an Indian raga, the Dies Irae, a medieval isorhythm, "Sumer Is Icumen In", and the music of Claudio Monteverdi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Scott Joplin, Igor Stravinsky, 12-bar blues, Sergei Prokofiev, Aaron Copland, Duke Ellington, Olivier Messiaen, John Cage, Terry Riley, Sting, and John Barry.
In science fiction:
- The rhyme has been used as an archetypal mantra against telepathy, featured in Babylon 5 and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Focusing on the rhyme helps shield one's thoughts from intrusion. Also, a modified version was used as a passphrase in Racing Mars, an episode of Babylon 5: "Lyta had a little Vorlon/her skin was pale as snow./Everywhere that Lyta went/the Vorlon was sure to go."
In T.V.:
- The Histeria! episode "Writers of the Purple Prose" featured a poem titled Mary Had a Little Lamb 2000, in which Mary (played by Susanna Susquahanna) has her lamb cloned, lampooning the controversy of Dolly the Sheep.
- In The Simpsons episode "'Round Springfield", Homer Simpson hums the song when he criticizes jazz musicians.
- In the Pingu episode Pingu and the lost ball. It plays as the Main episode's music.
- In the Goosebumps episode Calling all Creeps Wart forces Ricky to sing Mary had a little lamb
In sport:
- The Barmy Army, devoted fans of the English cricket team, often mock Australian cricketers and cricket fans by singing the words of the Australian national anthem to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb", and vice-versa.
In Video Games
- In Manx TT Superbike. during the sheep mode cheat. A remixed version of Mary Had a Little Lamb plays.
In film:
- In Horse Feathers, Chico Marx plays a lively piano number called "Collegiate", which he interlaces with riffs from "Dixie" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb".
- The song of the Silver Shamrock commercial in the film Halloween III: Season of the Witch is based on the "Mary Had a Little Lamb" rhythm.
- Tito & Tarantula sing a rather pop-rhythmed version in From Dusk till Dawn
In computers:
- A popular version among the Lisp community says "Mary had a little lambda/Its syntax white as snow/And every program Mary wrote/She wrote in Lisp, you know."[3]
[edit] Media
Note: This melody is not the usual American version, but rather the British version, which varies slightly from the American.
 |
|
||||||||
| Problems listening to these files? See media help. | |||||||||
[edit] References
- ^ Roulstone, John; Mary (Sawyer) and her friends (1928). The Story of Mary's Little Lamb. Dearborn: Mr. & Mrs. Henry Ford. pp. 8.
- ^ Worcester Telegram & Gazette News
- ^ Mary had a
