"I Love Little Pussy", alternatively called "I Love Little Kitty",
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English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
nursery rhyme
A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes.
From t ...
about a person who is kind to a pet cat. It has a Roud Folk Song Index
The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...
number of 12824.
Lyrics and melody
The most common modern version is:
I love little pussy,
Her coat is so warm,
And if I don't hurt her,
She'll do me no harm.
So I'll not pull her tail,
Nor drive her away,
But pussy and I,
Very gently will play.[I. Opie and P. Opie, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'' (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), 1st edn. pp. 356-7, 2nd edn. p.423.]
Additional lines include:
She shall sit by my side
And I'll give her some food;
And pussy will love me
Because I am good.
I'll pat pretty pussy,
And then she will purr;
And thus show her thanks
For my kindness to her.
I'll not pinch her ears,
Nor tread on her paw,
Lest I should provoke her
To use her sharp claw.
I never will vex her
Nor make her displeased:
For pussy can't bear
To be worried and teased.
The melody commonly associated with the rhyme was first recorded by the composer and nursery rhyme collector James William Elliott in his ''National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs'' (1870).
Origins
The poem is first recorded in ''The Child's Song Book'' published in 1830. It has been attributed to Jane Taylor (1783–1824), as it conforms to her style. However, there is no corroborative evidence to support this case.[
]
Controversy
Usage of the word "pussy" as a vulgar slang term for the vagina
In mammals, the vagina is the elastic, muscular part of the female genital tract. In humans, it extends from the vestibule to the cervix. The outer vaginal opening is normally partly covered by a thin layer of mucosal tissue called the hymen ...
is documented since the late 17th century. The rhyme's title and lyrics have been changed by some publications to replace the word "pussy" with the word " kitty",Sue Townsend
Susan Lillian Townsend, FRSL (née Johnstone, 2 April 194610 April 2014), was an English writer and humorist whose work encompasses novels, plays and works of journalism. She was best known for creating the character Adrian Mole.
After writing ...
.["]Pandora
In Greek mythology, Pandora (Greek: , derived from , ''pān'', i.e. "all" and , ''dōron'', i.e. "gift", thus "the all-endowed", "all-gifted" or "all-giving") was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions of Zeus. As Hes ...
's Little Pussy", page 33 of 1994 Mandarin paperback edition
References
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1830 songs
Cats in literature
English nursery rhymes
English folk songs
Songs about cats
English children's songs
Traditional children's songs