It never really occurred to me how terribly violent nursery rhymes can be until i wanted to teach some little kids to read them last week. Its funny i never realized wht cruelty and disaster they contained, since i would always chant these rhymes over and over again since i was a little little girl.
Consider this lullaby:
"Rock a Bye Baby, on the tree top.. When the wind blows, the cradle will fall.. Down will come baby, cradle and all.."
Poor baby! I cannot see its relevance to putting anyone to sleep, if the baby understood it would have scared him off.
Or this all-time favourite:
"Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water.. Jack fell down and broke his crown.. And Jill came tumbling after.."
Who would have thought that the roots of this nursery rhyme came from the Reign of Terror in France? Jack and Jill referred to are said to be King Louis XVI - Jack, who was beheaded (lost his crown) followed by his Queen Marie Antoinette - Jill (who came tumbling after). Scary gilerr..
Then there's this 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 together again."
The innocent fella was just sitting on a wall! What wrong did he do??
Of course, there are less violent ones. But look again carefully and you would see the protagonists in these nursery rhymes seem to be beset by a whole lot of problems..
We have perverts:
Georgie Porgie pudding and pie, Kissed the girls and made them cry, When the boys came out to play, Georgie Porgie ran away.
We have future serial killers:
"Ding Dong bell, Pussy's in the well.. Who put her in? Little Tommy Lynn.. Who pull her out? Little Jack Sprout.."
The jingle repeats, telling tales of the cats he drowned..
We also have mentally disturbed weirdos:
Wee Willie Winkle, Runs through the town.. Upstairs, downstairs, in his nightgown.. Tapping at the window, crying through the lock.. Are the children in their beds? It's now eight o'clock!
Is this what the kids are learning? I listened to these since i was a kid, but i dont think there is any affect to my mental growth - at least not known for now.
But considering the increasing amount of ridiculously over-protective parents who wouldnt even let their poor kids ever have a taste of candies because their teeth might rot.. Maybe nursery rhymes are, too, going to be condemned like coffee, sugar or salt, for containing dangerous contents for one's health? I wonder if the contents do not matter at all..?
The truth is, I dont care.. I love nonsense and the more nonsensical, the more enjoyable they seem to me.. For instance, Ninja Turtles are like my childhood heroes.. I still love them but i dont know - its just funny now to think how a bunch of Teenage Ninja Turtles, dressed in their underwear, and mutants at that, could have made their creators multi-millionaires overnight.. .
Perhaps someday.. I might change my mind when i start to have kids of my own..? That would be a long long long long time from now. Haha.