Comments | reluctance: Shaggy dog rhymes

reluctance

Shaggy dog rhymes

Aug 07, 2015 22:32

C was given a complete, authoritative (and apparently totally public domain) Mother Goose collection, including all kinds of Dickensian nastiness I would never subject my 21st century toddler to. She presses me ever onward to read "just one more" poem, and I of course love the sound of my own voice (which, by the end of the session, has taken on a ( Read more... )

Comments 2

segnbora August 8 2015, 18:48:48 UTC

I wouldn't say those are all obscure (perhaps better known in the UK). I knew "Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross" (not sure if I picked it up from British kids' books or where, here in the southern US), and "Jackanory" is the title of a long-running British kids' TV show so I'm guessing the rhyme it comes from wasn't too unknown.

reluctance August 9 2015, 04:52:47 UTC

With 321 entries, there's room for a big spread -- one could claim perhaps a "top 50" that everyone knows, and a "bottom 50" that virtually no one knows, and the middle 221 could still be considered... moderately unknown. While I don't know that all of the ones I named are bottom 50 material, I'm sure none of them are top 50 8) In short: obscurity is relative -- Banbury Cross is no Humpty Dumpty.