lullaby and good night…mare

Last week, Pic, Cardo and I went to storytime at the library, as usual. One of the songs they sang was a kind of medley of ‘It’s Raining, It’s Pouring’ and ‘Itsy- Bitsy Spider.’ This got me thinking about kids’ verse. (A subject I’d already given entirely too much thought to anyhow.)

Why is it that even when there aren’t somewhat veiled allusions to to-be-beheaded monarchs and the plague and such that kids’ verse can be so disturbing?

The way I learned the ‘It’s Raining’ song is as follows:

It’s raining, it’s pouring,
The old man is snoring,
He bumped his head,
When he went to bed,
And he couldn’t wake up in the morning.

I always thought, even as a child, ‘Somehow he slipped, smacked his head on the headboard…and then he died.’ So, yes, this probably isn’t what this song is saying, but what is it saying? Are there more verses I just don’t know? What is the point of the song? Just in case you couldn’t tell, this song has been haunting me for a good deal of my life.

Of course, there’s also

Rock-a-bye baby,
In the tree top,
When the wind blows,
The cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks,
The cradle will fall,
Down will come baby,
Cradle and all.

What kind of a nightmarish song is that to sing to a baby? Huh? First, why is the baby’s cradle hanging in a tree? Second, seriously?! I have a suspicion that an older sibling invented this ditty for a new baby in the family that seemed nothing more than a nuisance.

Finally, perhaps a weird one:

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 Dumpty together again.

For a few reasons this has always disturbed me. One is the imagery associated with Humpty Dumpty. Every time I see depictions of HD, he’s an egg. Usually an egg with pants. This image bothers me. Why is he an egg? Is that part of the original concept, or was someone just tyring to make sense of the rhyme. Also, and again, what kind of a verse is this to recite to children? Is this a warning against hanging out on the wall? ‘Don’t hang out on the wall. You might fall and your body will shatter beyond repair.’ Um…?

Well, what do you all think? About both these and other verse?