Rock-a-bye Baby and other rhymes

Any parent will know the trials and tribulations that come hand-in-hand with putting your children to bed. There are nights when they’re asleep the second their head hits the sheets, and other nights they can take a little bit more convincing. Perhaps since time began, humans have resorted to singing soothing rhymes or tunes to help lull our little ones into the land of nod – but have we ever actually looked at the lyrics behind some of our favourite rhymes? Though the tune might be soothing, the underlying message and history of some of these nursery rhymes can be both intriguing and unsettling – we’ve looked at some of our favourites here. Humpty Dumpty The rhyme depicts a living egg which falls from the wall, damaging himself so badly that not even the King’s men could put him back together again.  If you put it as bluntly as this, it does sound a little sinister, but it’s actually believed that Humpty Dumpty wasn’t an egg, or even a person – he was supposedly a canon. Owned by King Charles I, the canon named Humpty Dumpty helped seize the city of Colchester during the English Civil War. The canon was sitting in a tower when it was attacked by the opposition, and it fell to the ground, irreparable. Rock-a-bye Baby We found two histories to this rhyme, but it was the American one that really intrigued us. The song originated when a young pilgrim spotted Native American mothers suspending their child’s cradle from a tree, allowing it to swing in the wind and gently rock the baby to sleep. Thankfully, we didn’t find any stories that depict a baby actually falling after the bow of a tree broke! The Grand Old Duke of York We all know the rhyme which sees the old Duke march his troops to the top of the hill (and back down again), but is this rhyme actually referring to anything? We found that it was. The Duke is supposed to be Richard, Duke of York who marched his army to Sandal Castle. It was here that he held a defensive position during what was later to be called the War of the Roses. It’s thought that he ordered his army to march down the hill before they were overwhelmed by the Lancaster army, and the Duke of York too died. Rock-a-bye Baby and other rhymes