How many nursery rhymes do you know by heart?
 

or at least most of the first verse!

I know:

Peter Piper
Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater
Jack and Jill
Mary, Mary Quite Contrary
Baa Baa Black Sheep

er, I think that's all. I'm kind of interested in knowing the range of experiences here--different countries, different ages, parental status, etc.

Do things like Itsy Bitsy Spider and I'm a Little Teapot count?

I probably know an awful lot, but I wouldn't be able to list them. But I'd probably do okay on one of those name the next line competition shows, like the one about the songs. Singing Bee or whatever? Hosted by the guy that played the really dumb guy on that show, you know, that one.

yes, they count. and I forgot those!

Cloud, I'm scared.
I had a bad night the other night and came up with this very question as an exercise to divert my thoughts. I think I got to about 30 before I stopped counting.

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Little Jack Horner
Little Miss Muffet
Little Boy Blue
Tom, Tom the baker's son
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe
Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard
Doctor Foster went to Gloucester
Pease porridge hot
Let's to bed cried Sleepyhead
Sing a song of sixpence
There was an old woman tossed up in a blanket
Humpty Dumpty
Bye baby bunting
Rock a bye baby
The North wind doth blow
Wee Willie Winkie
Hey diddle diddle
Little Polly Flinders
Heggety Peggety my black hen
Ring a ring a roses (a song, does it count@)
Hickory dickory dock
Three blind mice
There was a crooked man
Mary had a little lamb
Georgie Porgie pudding and pie
See saw Marjorie Daw
Little Tommy Tucker sings for his supper
I had a little nut tree

Okay that's all off the top of my head.
And I can tell any of them in full.
I know there are plenty I forgot.

Little Bo Peep
There was a little dog (sitting by the fireside) - another singing one
I do not like thee Dr Fell
Goosie, Goosie Gander
Crosspatch, draw the latch
Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross

Can you tell this is my specialist subject? :)

ETA - am I spoiling this for other people now?
Nah - there must be plenty of foreign ones I don't know.

great minds, hah! better than counting gods. that's from . . . some book I know well but can't think of now.

And boy, you know a lot! There are some more in there I know, too.

Here is where I admit that when I worked in marketing I used to frequently dip into a staff copy of marvellous book about nursery rhymes by Iona and Peter Opie (okay I did have to look their names up). In my defence that was 15 years ago and I only read it because I was already interested.

We had a lot of second hand books as pre-schoolers. Mum was determined we would read before we got to school, but money was tight. So we learned a lot of quite old nursery rhymes. Also, there was approx 1 hour of children's TV in those days, so a lot more time for soaking up traditional material.

Some things I've learned: Humpty Dumpty for example was never an egg, it was a cannon.
And beware of those who tell you ring a ring a roses was about the plague - it predated that significantly.
Or that Sing a song of sixpence was a pirate recruiting rhyme - that was a snopes spoof.

ring around the rosie isn't about the plague? if it predated it "significantly" it's pretty durn old!

Some of these I learned in the schoolyard as clapping or other games, like "London Bridge is Falling Down"

I wonder if today's kids are still learning these, or if they have fallen by the wayside with other inconsequential lessons. Like reading.

Hell, the plague hit London in 1665 (that and the Great Fire in 1666 are well remembered dates for all British schoolkids). We tend to look at recent history as anything after the Norman Invasion (1066 - another easy to remember date).

I did check my sources, only to find the main reasons for dispute were less about the age of the rhyme (but I know I read that somewhere) and more because the rhyme has versions all over the world and the plague interpretation only surfaced after WWII.

I was thinking earlier, 'cause I think it hit earlier on the Continent. But that wouldn't make sense, since the rhyme is in English. But if the rhyme has versions all over the world . . . also, just because the interpretation was more recent, doesn't make it untrue. I doubt people were doing scholarly research on nursery rhymes much before then.

the only foreign nursery rhyme I know is "eenie meenie minie moe" in Spanish:

Tin, marin, de do pingue
cucara macara titere fue!

Ohhh. Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross. Always loved that one when i was a kid.

I don't know these;

Doctor Foster went to Gloucester
Let's to bed cried Sleepyhead
There was an old woman tossed up in a blanket
I had a little nut tree
Little Polly Flinders
See saw Marjorie Daw


and you forgot London Bridge is Falling Down.

it'd probably be construed as child abuse these days. Just what is a "cock horse" anyway?

There once was a man from Nantucket...

-Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
-Johny Johny Yes Papa
-Baa Baa Black Sheep
-London Bridge is Falling Down