[646] The North Wind Doth Blow

The north wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will the robin do then,
Poor thing?

He'll sit in a barn,
To keep himself warm,
And hide his head under his wing,
Poor thing.

	-- Anon. (from Mother Goose)

One of the several nursery rhymes I learnt at my mother's knee (hi mum!).
This one has always been one of my favourites, possibly helped by the
wonderful illustrations that accompanied it in a number of children's poetry
books. Like many other nursery rhymes, this one has an associated tune - as
much chanted as sung, as is also typical of the genre, and rather dolorous,
as befits the poem.

Note: It practically goes without saying that there are several minor
variants of the poem, with no one version laying claim to definitiveness.
This is merely the wording I like best.

On Mother Goose:

  fictitious old woman, reputedly the source of the body of traditional
  children's songs and verses known as nursery rhymes. She is often pictured
  as a beak-nosed, sharp-chinned elderly woman riding on the back of a
  flying gander. "Mother Goose" was first associated with nursery rhymes in
  an early collection of "the most celebrated Songs and Lullabies of old
  British nurses," Mother Goose's Melody; or Sonnets for the Cradle (1781),
  published by the successors of one of the first publishers of children's
  books, John Newbery. The oldest extant copy dates from 1791, but it is
  thought that an edition appeared, or was planned, as early as 1765, and it
  is likely that it was edited by Oliver Goldsmith, who may also have
  composed some of the verses. The Newbery firm seems to have derived the
  name "Mother Goose" from the title of Charles Perrault's fairy tales,
  Contes de ma mère l'oye (1697; "Tales of Mother Goose"), a French folk
  expression roughly equivalent to "old wives' tales."

  The persistent legend that Mother Goose was an actual Boston woman,
  Elizabeth Goose (Vergoose, or Vertigoose), whose grave in Boston's Old
  Granary Burying Ground is still a tourist attraction, is false. No
  evidence of the book of rhymes she supposedly wrote in 1719 has ever been
  found. The first U.S. edition of Mother Goose rhymes was a reprint of the
  Newbery edition published by Isaiah Thomas in 1785.

	-- EB

Links:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~pfa/dreamhouse/nursery/rhymes.html has a
large collection of nursery rhymes

I'd hoped to list a site that explained the stories behind some of the
nursery rhymes, but was unable to find one I liked. Suggestions welcomed.

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature on Nursery Rhymes
http://www.bartleby.com/221/1610.html

-martin

From: Ylfnogard614@

Thanks for the memories.
Happy Holidays!

From: Norman Page <NPage4@>

Re your Christmas Day poem, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, ed.
Iona and Peter Opie, Oxford, 1951, is a mine of information.  The one you
give contains no particular historical allusions, of course, but rhymes
like Mary, Mary, quite contrary and Humpty Dumpty are another kettle of
fish!

Norman Page

From: "Stephen Elliott" <skelliott8@>

I'm looking for some Mother Goose nursery rhymes written in French.  Any
ideas?

Thanks,
Steve Elliott

From: "acroanb" <acroanb@>

When the north wind doth blow as it is blowing  now, my mind goes back
many years to this little poem.  I think I learned a lesson in
compassion for God's little feathered creatures from this poem.
acroanb@,

From: "Glyn Nicholas" <gnicholas@>

Hi!
      I was glad to find this little poem on your web page when I looked
it up this morning. With winter on its inexorable way, these lines have
been in my head, but I couldn't recall the beginning of the second
verse.
    My father used to recite this to me when I was a young child in
Cornwall, England, eighty years ago, but he always said, "What will
Robin do then, poor thing?". This gave everything much more pathos and
Robin the endearing character of  a familiar friend, rather than the
more abstract nature implied by 'the'.  I didn't know this was from
Mother Goose. It would be interesting to check the original.
Anyway, thank you.
Glyn
P.S. The English robin is much smaller and has, possibly,  a larger
place in the people's heart and folklore than our larger American
counterpart.

From: Linton Hall <lintonhall@>

Does anybody know the tune? My mother used to sing it but I can't quite
remember.