ABSTRACT
If children’s poetry occupies a slightly uncertain space within both culture and criticism, the place of nursery rhymes seems more assured. Along with Cinderella and Rumpelstiltskin, Humpty Dumpty and Miss Muffet have the ears of parents, teachers, children’s publishers and booksellers, and draw the eyes of scholars from various fields. Like the fairy tale, the nursery rhyme is its own category, separate and slightly sacred, a folk literature whose historical roots and psychoanalytic resonance confer a degree of respect - ability. Even so, many nursery rhymes seem strange to modern sensibilities and not the kind of thing usually considered ideal material for very young children in the twenty-first century. But then some of these compositions are ancient in origin; references in classical texts point to the existence of analogous children’s singing games in Roman and Greek culture. Others were not originally composed for children, being derived from ballads and other folk songs, as well as proverbs, riddles, and religious catechism. Indeed, it was only in the nineteenth century that these songs and snatches began to be gathered under the heading of “nursery rhymes.” As they were requisitioned for nursery use, childhood became a repository for the oral compositions of previous generations.
