Most people’s first experience of poems comes in the form of nursery rhymes—the lullabyes, counting games, riddles and rhymed fables that introduce us to the rhythmic, mnemonic, allegorical uses of language in songs sung to us by our mothers. We can trace the original authors of only a few of these poems—most of them have been handed down from mother to child for generations, and were only recorded in print in collections long after their first appearance in the language (the dates below indicate first known publication). Here are a few of the best-known English and American nursery rhymes:
- “Jack Sprat” (1639)
- “Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake, Baker’s Man” (1698)
- “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” (1744)
- “Hickory, Dickory Dock” (1744)
- “Jack and Jill” (1760s)
- “This Little Piggy” (1760)
- “Little Jack Horner” (1764)
- “Hey Diddle Diddle” (1765)
- “Hush, Little Baby,” “The Mockingbird Song” (traditional, probably 18th century)
- “Rock-a-bye Baby” (1805)
- “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” (1805)
- “Little Miss Muffet” (1805)
- “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” by Jane Taylor (1806)
- “Humpty Dumpty” (1810)
- “Mary Had a Little Lamb” by Sarah Josepha Hale (1830)
- “Monday’s Child” (1838)
- “Ring Around the Rosie” (1881)
- “Star Light, Star Bright” (1890s)
- “This Old Man” (1906)
- “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” (1910)
