RHYME and REASON

Nursery rhymes are such an indelible ingredient of childhood most people do not pause to consider their origins. Who would have imagined that "Rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub" was describing "the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker" taking part in a seamy peepshow at a county fair? Or that the "three blind mice" represent a triumverate of Protestant bishops who were blinded and executed by the devoutly Roman Catholic Queen Mary Tudor of England? Or that Jack and Jill's seemingly innocuous trip up a small incline was hardly about procuring H20, but was rather an analogy for both of them succumbing to carnal desire for the first time? (seriously!)

Chris Roberts, a London-based librarian, took on the sometimes eye-popping subject of the histories of English-language nursery rhymes in his 2005 book Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind the Rhyme--The Seamy and Quirky Stories Behind Favorite Nursery Rhymes. I presented my brother-in-law with this title several years ago as a Christmas present and he has commented more than once how he has enjoyed the explanations and explications of childhood verses. While I'd known that "Ring Around the Rosey" referred to victims dropping dead from the Bubonic Plague, I'd never heard that "Baa Baa Black Sheep" was a denunciation of the tax laws of thirteenth century England.

The entire subject of rhyme came up today when my sister telephoned me and said that my elder nephew, Alexander, was continuing his fascination with rhyming words. He recently claimed that "flower" and "mother" were words that rhymed, which my sister declaimed as incorrect. Her husband, however, averred the tot was in the right. He said that since the last syllable of both words was the same, it is a type of rhyme. My sister was hoping her brother (who has his bachelor's degree in English literature) would validate her argument.

Sorry, sis.

In fact, the entire world of English rhyme is incredibly rich and varied. Alliteration (the first consonants sound the same), assonance (the vowel sounds are the same, within a single line of poetry), and slant rhymes (imperfect but similar sounds) are all legitimate species of rhyme. Half-rhyme, syllabic rhyme, and imperfect rhyme are other means of having words connect.
I am deeply pleased that young Alex is being instructed about them from such a young age. Expounding on his knoweldge of all things literate and linguistic has been a source of pride and joy for me; this is the same little guy who now knows the proper name for the telephone's pound key [#] (octothorpe) and this symbol: & (ampersand). Not too shabby for having just turned four!