"Poor Mary" or "Poor Jenny" is an
English language
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 ...
and
singing game
A singing game is an activity based on a particular verse or rhyme, usually associated with a set of actions and movements. As a collection, they have been studied by folklorists, ethnologists, and psychologists and are seen as important part of ...
. 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 1377.
Lyrics
Lyrics vary considerably for this song. Over a hundred known variations have been collected in Britain since the 1880s, not least in the use of the names, including Jenny, Mary and Sally. Common modern versions include:
:Poor Jenny is a-weeping,
:A-weeping, a-weeping,
:Poor Jenny is a-weeping
:On a bright summer’s day.
:Why are you weeping,
:Weeping, weeping,
:Why are you weeping,
:On a bright summer's day?
:I'm weeping for a loved one,
:A loved one, a loved one,
:I'm weeping for a loved one,
:On a bright summer's day.
:Stand up and choose your loved one,
:Your loved one, your loved one,
:Stand up and choose your loved one,
:One a bright summer's day.
:Shake hands before you leave 'er,
:You leave 'er, you leave 'er,
:Shake hands before you leave 'er,
:On a bright summer's day.
[ I. Opie and P. Opie, ''The Singing Game'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 325–9.]
The game
One child of the group is chosen to be "Jenny" or "Mary" etc., and has to kneel in the middle of a circle, usually with head in hands. The other children join their hands and walk around the other child singing the first verse. The child in the centre then carries out the actions of the following verses, most importantly choosing a partner.
The tune
The tune is widely known in Europe, and forms the first section of the folk dance tune "La Bourrée des Galvachers" from Burgundy, France. The melody was also used by
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...
in his
first Piano Concerto, op.35.[Dmitri Shostakovich, ''Piano Concerto'' (London: Boosey & Hawkes, n.d. HPS644). Compare the trumpet solo in the nine bars starting one bar after rehearsal mark 63 with the melody as given by Opie; they are identical.]
See also
*
Kagome Kagome
"Kagome Kagome" (かごめかごめ, or ) is a Japanese children's game and the song ('' Warabe uta'') associated with it. One player is chosen as the '' Oni'' (literally demon or ogre, but similar to the concept of "it" in tag) and sits blin ...
Notes
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Children's games
Singing games
English nursery rhymes
English folk songs
English children's songs
Traditional children's songs