We were laughing about it at the table later, and it brought to mind several others. One was Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater. Had a wife, but couldn't keep her. So, he................................
Can anyone here finish it?
He put her in a pumpkin shell,
And there he kept her very well.
Kind of misogynist, wouldn't you say?
I read nursery rhymes to all my kids, because rhyming is about speech patterns. I have bought my grandchildren nursery rhyme books, which my kids are reading to them. But I do noticed they are "tidied" up a bit, so as to not have so many gruesome things.
Georgy porgey, pudding and pie,
Kissed the girls and made them cry,
When the boys came out to play,
Geogry porgey ran away.
Apparently this was about George III of England molesting women. Some of the noblemen stood up to him, and he stopped. (And for all your Americans, George III is famous for the Boston Tea Party and taxation without representation!)