“Nursery rhymes” is really a generic term. It covers a variety of poems for kids—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 and other elders. Here’s an annotated list of some of the types of nursery rhymes, with linked examples.
Lullabyes
The very first poems that reach our human ears are often lullabyes, the soft, repetitive, calming songs parents sing to soothe their babies to sleep. Two classics in our library are “Rock-a-bye Baby” (1805) and “Hush, Little Baby,” also known as “The Mockingbird Song” (American traditional, probably 18th century).
Clapping Songs
Some nursery rhymes are actually songs, meant to be accompanied by hand-clapping between parent and child that marks out the rhythm of the poem. The original of these is, of course, “Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake, Baker’s Man.”Finger and Toe Games
Some nursery rhymes are accompanied by a tactile sequence of motions, making a game with the baby’s toes as in “This Little Piggy” (1760) or teaching finger dexterity to a toddler as in “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” (1910).Counting Songs
These nursery rhymes teach children how to count by using rhymes as the mnemonics for the names of the numbers—like “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” (1805) and the song “This Old Man” (1906).Riddles
Many traditional nursery rhymes come from old riddles, describing their answer in puns and metaphors—as, for instance, “Humpty Dumpty” (1810), whose subject is, of course, an egg.Fables
Like riddles, fables deal in puns and metaphors, but instead of describing a subject meant to be guessed by the hearer, fables are narratives, telling stories that often teach a moral (like Aesop’s original fables) or use animals to represent people. Even a rhyme as brief as “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” (1910) might be considered a fable teaching the virtue of perseverance.
