Ladybird, Ladybird

Reflection on the versions of "Ladybird, ladybird" viewed on the ECLIPSE website.

Combine your knowledge of the species with the history of the rhyme for a fuller understanding.

Four of the ladybird variations begin with the supplication, "Ladybird, ladybird, Fly away home". The exception is Halliwell's, which only implies that she should go home. Differences are evident in the language style and the tone of the verses. The earlier publications are generally more formal, foreboding and use the term "pudding-pan." Halliwell's Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Tales of England published 1853 and Lang's Nursery Rhyme Book (Code # 0064) published in 1897use the formal pronoun "Thy" instead of "Your." ["Thy house is on fire, thy children all gone"]. The words "all gone" are a gentle way to express that the children are dead, except for little Ann. Mother Ladybird must hurry home to rescue her only surviving child who faces peril under the pudding pan. Death was a common occurrence among children in the 19th century. Young children experienced the death of their siblings and peers on a regular basis. What may seem an unacceptable topic in today's literature for young children was an everyday experience for children of the 1800s.

The 1857 Bennett version, in Old Nurse's Book: Of Rhymes, Jingles and Ditties (Code # 0099), is a forewarning but does not announce that the children are all gone or dead [Your house is on fire. Your children are home]. The 1897 Opie edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Code # 0063) changed pudding pan to warming pan, perhaps because a pudding pan was no longer a recognizable word in the vocabulary at the turn of the century. Baring-Gould's Annotated Mother Goose, published in 1962, has a more modern version of the verse. The pronoun”your” is used, and there is no reference that any of the children have died yet. There is also no reference to little Ann and the pan. Similar to the Bennett version, they are in danger of burning, but there is hope. Baring-Gould claims the "little Ann" verses were added later to Ladybird, ladybird, as found in the earliest known nursery rhyme books. “All except one,And that's little Ann. And she has crept under the warming pan.” In Yorkshire, England, these "lady-cow" verses were added. “All but one that lig under a stone, Fly thee home, lady-cow, ere it be gone.” If Ladybird were a parent today, she might be considered negligent. She left her children home alone, exposed to life threatening dangers. If a contemporary mother did that, she would probably be arrested.

Baring- Gould's notes also tell us that the ladybird was referred to as the "burny bee" in this happier rhyme from Norfolk, England which is reflective of the lore that a ladybird brings good luck in love.

Burnie bee, burnie bee,
Tell me when your wedding be?
If it be tomorrow day,
Take your wings and fly away.

American legend says it is very unlucky to harm a ladybug. If this verse is said politely to the ladybug it will fly to one's sweetheart.

Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly from my hand,
Tell me where my true love stands,
Up-hill or down-hill or by the sea sand,
Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly from my hand.
Fly, lady-bird, fly!
North, south, east or west;
Fly to the pretty girl
That I love best. (1967)