Mother Goose as Mother Nature

Part 1: Nature at play

It would be foolhardy to lead the reader into thinking that all nursery rhymes are filled with hidden meanings about mankind’s inglorious past. Not all nursery rhymes have animals that represent hidden stories of political figures or rulers. Some bits of doggerel are just fun rhymes to entertain children. Consider this poem: “I never saw a purple cow. I never hope to see one. But I can say this anyhow: ‘I’d rather see than be one.’ ”

Sometimes, whenever two cultures come together, a hybrid language forms using elements from them both, the result of which yields something humorous:

“En un camino road va una vaca cow mascando chewing tobacco y spitting para un lão.”

Animals in nursery rhymes are often personalized and end up having human characteristics: “A panther is like a leopard except it hasn’t been peppered. Should you see a panther crouch, prepare to say ‘Ouch!’ Better yet, if called by a panther, don’t anther.”

What makes these animals attractive to children is the idea that they are acting like ordinary people throughout the course of daily life. This well-liked doggerel was very popular here in New Mexico:

“The buck and the doe did travel to old Santa Fe to trade, some rich coffee and some sugar for their fawns back in the glade. The buck and the doe were running and within a hole they fell, and the buck came out all scruffy but the doe, all smooth and well. The buck and the doe had gone to Mass, and he bent down to kneel, but the doe thought it was funny and she broke out in a peal. The buck and the doe had gone to church confession for to say, but the buck returned home quickly for he knew not how to pray.”

The older generation of animals tries to pass down knowledge on to the younger set. Some even beg the question of why we can’t learn how to like exemplary animals: “A wise old owl sat in an oak. The more he heard, the less he spoke. The less he spoke, the more he heard. Why aren’t we all like that wise old bird?”

Perhaps the reason animals are so much wiser than human beings harkens back to the fact that they form a part of Nature instead of living apart from Nature. By

observing the signs around them, they can foretell the changes about them:

“Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle, little star. How I wonder what you are. Then the traveler in the dark, thanks you for your tiny spark. He could not see where to go if you did not twinkle so. Twinkle, twinkle, little star. How I wonder what you are.”

This nursery rhyme was first published in 1806 by Jane and Ann Taylor. Modern children tend to sing it to the tune of the French melody ‘Ah, vous dirai-je maman’, published in 1761. It is the same tune used in singing: “A, B, C, D, E, F, G” and also used in singing ‘Ba, ba, black sheep’.”

Sometimes even the sun and moon are personalized into an old, married couple similar to humans:

“The moon is named Lola; Manuel is her spouse. Manuel goes to work early; she stays in the house.”

The joy of learning something silly is often meant as a play on words to amuse children. Plays on words become tonguetwisters. This “parable” is now spelled as “pearable” in order to teach kids that all things in Nature have life and meaning:

“A pear with no pair does not often despair but prepares in the pear tree to perish right there.”