Mary had a little lamb

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Mary had a little lamb is a popular nursery rhyme. Here it is in its entirety:

Mary had a little lamb,

little lamb, little lamb,

Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.

And everywhere that Mary went,

Mary went, Mary went,

and everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.

It followed her to school one day

school one day, school one day,

It followed her to school one day, which was against the rules.

It made the children laugh and play,

laugh and play, laugh and play,

it made the children laugh and play to see a lamb at school.

And so the teacher turned it out,

turned it out, turned it out,

And so the teacher turned it out, but still it lingered near,

And waited patiently about,

patiently about, patiently about,

And waited patiently about till Mary did appear.

"Why does the lamb love Mary so?"

Love Mary so? Love Mary so?

"Why does the lamb love Mary so," the eager children cry.

"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know."

The lamb, you know, the lamb, you know,

"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know," the teacher did reply.

It was first published as a poem by Sarah Hale on May 24, 1830, prompted by the incident described below. This rhyme comes from Norse mothers telling their children to be quiet at night.

As a girl, Mary Sawyer (later Mrs. Mary Tyler) kept a pet lamb, which she took to school one day at the suggestion of her brother. A commotion naturally ensued. Mary recalled:

"Visiting school that morning was a young man by the name of John Roulstone, a nephew of the Reverend Lemuel Capen, who was then settled in Sterling. It was the custom then for students to prepare for college with ministers, and for this purpose Mr. Roulstone was studying with his uncle. The young man was very much pleased with the incident of the lamb; and the next day he rode across the fields on horseback to the little old schoolhouse and handed me a slip of paper which had written upon it the three original stanzas of the poem..." (The Story of Mary’s Little Lamb, Dearborn, 1928, p. 8).

There are two competing theories on the origin of this poem. One holds that Roulstone wrote the first twelve lines and that the final twelve lines, more moralistic and much less childlike than the first, were composed by Sarah Hale; the other is that Hale was responsible for the entire poem.

Thomas Edison recited the first stanza of this poem to test his invention of the phonograph in 1877, making this the first audio recording to be successfully made and played back. In 1923, Henry Ford moved a building to the grounds of the Wayside Inn from Sterling, Massachusetts, which he believed was the original schoolhouse mentioned in this poem. Paul McCartney and Wings released a version of the song, with a new melody by McCartney, as a single in 1972. Nu-Metal band KoRn also included a part of this rhyme in their song Shoots and Ladders. In their live shows, they often attach the part of the song which contains this rhyme with Metallica's One's crescendo. Blues artist Buddy Guy combined it with elements from other nursery school rhymes. This version of the song was later covered by fellow bluesman Stevie Ray Vaughan. The alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkins also included a variation of this nursery rhyme in their song "XYU" from their album "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness", with the lines "Mary had a little lamb/Her face was white as snow/And everywhere that Mary went/I was sure to go/Now Mary's got a problem/And Mary's not a stupid girl/Mary's got some deep shit/Mary does not forget..."

Also the house-rap group SNAP recorded in the 90s a song called "Mary had a little boy", which clearly stems from this rhyme.

In late 2006, rock group Evanescence played with the nursery rhyme in their song, "Lose Control". The lyrics are as follows, "Mary had a lamb/His eyes black as coal/If we play very quiet, my lamb/Mary never has to know".

The rhyme has gained a rather darker meaning in recent science fiction as an archetypal mantra against telepathy, featured in at least Babylon 5 and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri — focusing on it helps shield other thoughts from intrusion.

[edit] Touch-tone phone

It is possible to play the rhyme's melody on a touch-tone phone.

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[edit] Media

• Stevie Ray Vaughan Performance - El Mocambo, 1983.