It's Raining, It's Pouring
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The oldest version of this rhyme reads:
- It's raining, it's pouring
- The old man is snoring
- He went to bed and he bumped his head
- And he couldn't get up in the morning
However, in the more common version, the third line is switched around:
- It's raining, it's pouring
- The old man is snoring
- He bumped his head as he went to bed
- And couldn't get up in the morning
With the later version, occasional a more sinister sounding fourth line is used:
- And didn't get up in the morning or And never got up in the morning
An alternate version reads:
- It's raining, it's pouring
- The old man is snoring
- He went to bed with a cold in his head
- And he didn't get up until morning
Yet another alternate version (although the sources for this are very limited and obscure -- and somewhat obtuse as well):
- It's raining, it's pouring
- The old man is snoring
- He bumped his head on a piece of bread
- and couldn't get up in the morning
[edit] Parody
For Shakespeare's Macbeth:
- It's raining, it's pouring,
- The old king's not snoring
- He got into bed and was found dead
- When they went to him in the morning
[edit] Popular culture
- A children's book of the same name, written by Kin Eagle and illustrated by Rob Gilbert, expands on this rhyme to show what happens to the old man in all sorts of weather.
- The PC game Delaware St. John Volume 1: The Curse of Midnight Manor, begins with the ghost of a little girl singing this rhyme in a spooky manner while it's storming outside.