Monday, April 19, 2010

Dilly Dilly

Poetry Month, Day 19: I promised myself I wouldn't spend too much time showcasing nursery rhyme collections this month, because if I were to walk down that road, I could easily do a full month's worth without even thinking twice. And yet, I also didn't want to leave nursery rhymes off the list altogether. I don't suppose there's a National Nursery Rhyme Month, is there?

My daughter and I like this 1954 stand-by. It's been reprinted many times since its first publication, and, in 2004, a 50th Anniversary edition was published that is still available in trade paperback. I'll give you the titular song:

Lavender's blue, dilly, dilly,
Lavender's green;
When I am a king, dilly, dilly
You shall be queen.
Call up your men, dilly, dilly,
Set them to work,
Some to the plough, dilly, dilly,
Some to the cart.
Some to make hay, dilly, dilly,
Some to cut corn,
While you and I, dilly, dilly,
Keep ourselves warm.

--Traditonal (English)

(and you can all keep singing the Burl Ives version in your head, just as I do every time I read/sing it to my daughter)



from Lavender's Blue, compiled by Kathleen Lines; illustrated by Harold Jones. Oxford UP, 1954.

2 comments:

  1. I'll be singing that all day! ; )

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love me some Burl Ives. (as you well know)
    And I've always found that the sweetest, prettiest old song - what a lovely old book!

    ReplyDelete

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