http://eserver.org/books/poe/diddling.html
Edgar Allan Poe. Diddling: Considered as One of the Exact Sciences.
1850.
Pop Music Influence - "Jump Down"
and be B*witched
http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/essays/chesterton.html
G. K. Chesterton on Child Psychology and Nonsense.
http://www.messybeast.com/nursery.htm
The Role of Cats in Nursery Rhymes by Sarah Hartwell raises different
perspectives.
An excerpt from J.R.R. Tolkien's from the Lord of the Rings
?At the Sign of the Prancing Pony"
Frodo sings what Bilbo had written:
. . .
Then the ostler said to his tipsy cat:
?The white horses of the Moon,
They neigh and champ their silver bits;
But their master's been and drowned his wits,
and the Sun'll be rising soon!'
So the cat on his fiddle played hey-diddle-diddle,
a jig that would wake the dead:
He squeaked and sawed and quickened the tune,
While the landlord shook the Man in the Moon:
'It's after three!' he said.
They rolled the Man slowly up the hill
and bundled him into the Moon,
While his horses galloped up in rear,
And the cow came capering like a deer,
and a dish ran up with the spoon.
Now quicker the fiddle went deedle-dum-diddle;
the dog began to roar,
The cow and the horses stood on their heads;
The guests all bounded from their beds
and danced upon the floor.
With a ping and a pong the fiddle-strings broke!
the cow jumped over the Moon,
And the little dog laughed to see such fun,
And the Saturday dish went off at a run
with the silver Sunday spoon.
The round Moon rolled behind the hill
as the Sun raised up her head.
She hardly believed her fiery eyes;
For though it was day, to her surprise
they all went back to bed!
Opie, Iona and Peter., eds. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhyme.
New York : Oxford University Press, 1962.
De Paola, Tomie. Hey Diddle Diddle & Other Mother Goose Rhymes
. New York : Putnam & Grosset, 1998.
Kemp, Moira. Hey Diddle Diddle . New York : Lodestar Books,
1991.
Winter, Jeanette. Hey Diddle Diddle . San Diego , CA : Harcourt
Brace, 1999.
