What Are Little Boys Made Of?
| "What Are Little Boys Made Of?" | |
|---|---|
| Roud #821 | |
| Song | |
| Written | England |
| Published | c. 1820 |
| Form | Nursery rhyme |
| Writer | Traditional |
| Language | English |
"What Are Little Boys Made Of?" is a popular nursery rhyme dating from the early 19th century. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 821.
Lyrics
Here is a representative modern version of the lyrics:
- What are little boys made of?
- What are little boys made of?
- Snips and snails
- And puppy-dogs' tails
- That's what little boys are made of
- What are little girls made of?
- What are little girls made of?
- Sugar and spice
- And everything nice (or all things nice)
- That's what little girls are made of[1]
The rhyme appears in many variant forms. For example, other versions may describe boys as being made of "snaps", "frogs",[2][3] "snakes",[4] or "slugs",[5] rather than "snips" as above.
Origins
In the earliest known versions, the first ingredient for boys is either "snips" or "snigs",[6] the latter being a Cumbrian dialect word for a small eel.
The rhyme sometimes appears as part of a larger work called What Folks Are Made Of or What All the World Is Made Of. Other stanzas describe what babies, young men, young women, sailors, soldiers, nurses, fathers, mothers, old men, old women, and all folks are made of. According to Iona and Peter Opie, this first appears in a manuscript by the English poet Robert Southey (1774–1843), who added the stanzas other than the two below.[1] Though it is not mentioned elsewhere in his works or papers, it is generally agreed to be by him.[7]
The relevant section in the version attributed to Southey was:
- What are little boys made of
- What are little boys made of
- Snips & snails & puppy dogs tails
- And such are little boys made of.
- What are young women made of
- Sugar & spice & all things nice[1]
In popular culture
- The line "sugar, spice and everything nice" has been interpreted in the song "Daddy's Little Girl", written by Robert Burke and Horace Gerlach and later recorded by "The Mills Brothers" in 1950.
- In the second Peanuts comic strip, Patty can be seen reciting the rhyme as she walks past and hits Charlie Brown.
- An extract of the nursery rhyme was used in a song "Sugar and Spice" by The Searchers, from 1963.
- The nursery rhyme (particularly the line "sugar, spice and everything nice") served as an inspiration for the Cartoon Network series The Powerpuff Girls
- Punk rock band Green Day mentioned the rhyme in the chorus of their song "King for a Day" about cross-dressing.
- "Sugar and spice, and all things nice" is a verse in the Stone Roses early single "Sally Cinnamon".
- "That's What Little Girls Are Made Of" is a single by Raven-Symoné featuring rapper Missy Elliott.
- "Sugar 'N Spikes" is a song by Captain Beefheart
- The line "Slime and snails or puppy dogs' tails" was used in David Bowie's song Magic Dance on the soundtrack of Labyrinth.
- Sugar & Spice are the naughty and nice henchwenches of Two-Face in the 1995 movie Batman Forever.
- According to Hobbes, tigers are made of "Dragonflies and katydids, but mostly chewed-up little kids." [8]
References
- 1 2 3 Opie, P.; Opie, I. (1997). The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 100–101.
- ↑ "Frankenstein's Chemistry". Punch 61: 41. 29 July 1871. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
- ↑ Daubeny, Giles A. (November 1901). "A Snail Hunter; Cockchafers". Nature Notes: The Selborne Society's Magazine 12: 215. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
- ↑ Wintemberg, W. J.; Wintemberg, Katherine H. (January–March 1918). "Folk-Lore from Grey County, Ontario". Journal of American Folk-Lore 31: 83–124. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
- ↑ Griffin, Gerald (1827). Suil Dhuv, the Coiner. Saunders and Otley. p. 449 of the 1842 edition.
- ↑ Dance, Charles (1837). The Bengal Tiger: A Farce.
- ↑ Delamar, Gloria T. (2000). Mother Goose: From Nursery to Literature. IUniverse. pp. 175–7. ISBN 0-595-18577-0.
- ↑ http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1987/06/26
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