Lyrics
This rhyme is one of the most varied English nursery rhymes, probably because of its crude early version. Common modern versions include: :Little Robin Redbreast :Came to visit me; :This is what he whistled, :Thank you for my tea. I. Opie and P. Opie, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'' (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 371-2. and: :Little Robin Redbreast :Sat upon a tree, :Up went the Pussy-Cat, :And down went he; :Down came Pussy-Cat, :Away Robin ran, :Says little Robin Redbreast— :Catch me if you can. :Little Robin Redbreast jumped upon a wall, :Pussy-Cat jumped after him, and almost got a fall. :Little Robin chirped and sung, and what did pussy say? :Pussy-Cat said Mew, mew mew,—and Robin jumped away.Origins
The earliest versions of this rhyme reveal a more basic humour. The earliest recorded is from '' Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book'' (c. 1744), which has the lyric: :Little Robin Red breast, :Sitting on a pole, :Nidde, Noddle, Went his head. :And poop went his Hole. By the late eighteenth century the last line was being rendered 'And wag went his tail,' and other variations were used in nineteenth-century children's books, in one of the clearest cases of bowdlerisation in nursery rhymes.Fingerplay
The rhyme has been used as aNotes
{{authority control English folk songs English children's songs Traditional children's songs Songs about birds Songs about cats 1744 songs Finger plays English nursery rhymes Fictional birds Songwriter unknown