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Nursery Rhymes Quiz

Fill the blanks in these nursery rhymes.
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Quizmaster
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Last updated: September 27, 2014
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First submittedJanuary 5, 2012
Times taken40,041
Average score72.2%
Rating4.22
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Nursery Rhyme
Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are?
Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?
Itsy Bitsy spider crawled up the waterspout
Jack be nimble, Jack be quick / Jack jump over the candlestick
This little piggy went to market / This little piggy stayed at home
Red sky at night, sailor's delight
As I was going to St. Ives I met a man with seven wives
Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool?
Georgie Porgie pudding and pie / Kissed the girls and made them cry
Jack fell down and broke his crown / And Jill came tumbling after
Jack Sprat could eat no fat / His wife could eat no lean
Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet / Eating her curds and whey
Mary had a little lamb its fleece was white as snow
Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard
Rain rain go away / Come again another day
Ring around the rosy, a pocketful of posies
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe
Star light, star bright / The first star I see tonight
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80 Comments
bioticbootyshaker
+4
Level 48
Jan 5, 2012
I've always heard it as "The itsy-bitsy spider crawled up the waterspout", but okay. Got it anyway.
Quizmaster
+1
Level ∞
Jan 5, 2012
Changed it to your version - which I think is the more popular one.
samiamco
+3
Level 68
Sep 14, 2016
It's a minor thing, obviously, but I'm almost positive it starts with "The", as the itsy bitsy part refers to the spider's diminutive size, not her name.
sumguy
+2
Level 87
Dec 12, 2017
Yes, it's not a spider named Itsy Bitsy, but a description of a spider who is itsy bitsy.
Remster
+10
Level 81
Dec 12, 2017
In the UK, it's "Incy-Wincy", which is a name. Hence the fourth line is "Washed poor Incy out" rather than "Washed the spider out", which wouldn't make much sense after his name has just been given. Fascinating, eh?
CardinalSin
+1
Level 81
May 3, 2020
Not with me it isn't.
Anneliese18
+15
Level 60
Jan 5, 2012
I've always said 'shepherd's delight', and it's what a lot of Brits say so should be accepted..
Quizmaster
+1
Level ∞
Jan 5, 2012
Okay. That will work now.
Remster
+3
Level 81
Dec 12, 2017
Red sky at night, shepherd's delight. Minced lamb and potato, shepherd's pie.
Kalleanon
+3
Level 66
Feb 7, 2020
Red sky at night, barn's alight,
ruudsje
+2
Level 68
Jan 5, 2012
I'm with annie1892, shepherd's should be acceptable
geoquizpro
+2
Level 58
Jan 5, 2012
agree with the two above i've only ever heard shepherds delight used
aphrodite
+2
Level 52
Jan 5, 2012
I've always heard "red sky at night, sailor's delight, red sky in morning, sailor's warning"
tamandjer
+2
Level 63
Jan 5, 2012
I spent the first two minutes typing in all the Andrew Dice Clay rhyme completions, but for some reason they were not accepted :-)
DiscoBayGolfer
+1
Level 79
Jan 5, 2012
tamandjer ~ that was funny! Little Boy Blue...
blinky
+1
Level 58
Nov 22, 2016
He needed the money!
Megan23
+3
Level 12
Jan 6, 2012
should allow "old lady" for the old woman who lived in a shoe
Quizmaster
+1
Level ∞
Jan 6, 2012
That will work now.
Megan12
+6
Level 15
Jan 7, 2012
Isn't it 'ring a ring of roses'?
betsy1997
+1
Level 33
Nov 18, 2012
I thought that
oscarsmom
+3
Level 22
Jan 7, 2012
Yes, txbdog - I think it's a pocket full of posies. Fun quiz - a nice relief from all these new football quizzes!
theLAYTshow
+1
Level 42
Jan 12, 2012
I've always heard it as 'pink sky at night', but of course that didn't stop me from getting the answer... Only missed the St Ives one cos I couldn't remember how many wives he had and never heard of Jack Sprat or his wife...
boomersooner91
+2
Level 14
Jan 17, 2012
ya i tried pocket over and over forgetting the full. and ya it should be pocket full
KatM
+1
Level 22
Mar 5, 2012
Ahh.. I got the hardest one again. As I was going to St Ives... I didn't know that was a nursery rhyme? I thought it was a riddle..
yodasocko
+1
Level 46
Jun 23, 2013
Seven wives? I wish that guy luck!
mez
+1
Level 72
Oct 25, 2014
yes, I thought it a riddle as well.
ander217
+2
Level 74
Feb 22, 2019
This is how I heard it, "As I was going to St. Ives I met a man with seven wives. Each wife had seven sacks, each sack had seven cats, each cat had seven kits. Kits, cats, sacks, and wives, how many were going to St. Ives?" It is a riddle, but it is also a nursery rhyme. There are several nursery rhyme riddles. And for those who haven't heard it, the answer is....spoiler alert....one - I was the only one going to St. Ives.
DKCtheSecond
+1
Level 50
Jan 10, 2020
You're absolutely correct in that that is how it is supposed to be answered. However, there is nothing in the riddle whatsoever that requires the man with seven wives, etc. to be going in the opposite direction. It simply says, that "I" met them as I was going to St. Ives...they could have been going there too.
Nobody
+1
Level 15
May 14, 2012
I second KatM, but hey, getting it right makes me look smart, so no complaints here
Nytebreid
+1
Level 37
Nov 17, 2012
I'll admit it... I only know the St. Ives thing from one of the Die Hard movies.
buck1017
+1
Level 78
May 14, 2013
me too. Glad i'm not the only one
BlackLab
+1
Level 67
Jun 17, 2015
Ditto
samiamco
+1
Level 68
Sep 14, 2016
I knew it from Sesame Street!
DonTheLamplighter
+1
Level 86
Mar 28, 2017
Yep. Thank you, Jeremy Irons.
betsy1997
+4
Level 33
Nov 18, 2012
It's incy wincy spider
ander217
+2
Level 74
Oct 27, 2014
I grew up with itsy-bitsy.
HarryPotterFTW
+4
Level 17
Mar 2, 2013
Couldn't spell cupboard...

Cubbard?

Cubbord?

Cuppard?

Cupperd?

Just one of those days...

mahble
+2
Level 79
Dec 12, 2017
Yes... I saw Hubbard and immediately typed Cubbard. And then realized that was wrong...
flash59
+1
Level 51
Mar 5, 2013
Only thing I thought of that rhymed with Ives was hives.
thetotofan
+2
Level 8
Apr 17, 2014
I learned it as "Red sky at night is the farmer's delight. Red sky in the morning is the shepherd's warning." I'm Irish.
mez
+1
Level 72
Oct 25, 2014
me too! And I am an Aussie :)
GlassMonkeyCode
+1
Level 69
Mar 24, 2025
My too, and I'm an alien!
Alexquiz17
+1
Level 94
Sep 30, 2025
Me too. English
burntfrost
+1
Level 47
May 22, 2014
No pussycat?
Awesomeness101
+1
Level 56
Oct 25, 2014
I have always heard this little pig went to the store not market
zizzers4
+1
Level 32
Oct 25, 2014
I got "Sailor's Delight" from Curious George.
berowdy
+1
Level 59
Oct 25, 2014
i've never heard the Georgie Porgie, Red Sky at Light, or St. Ives ones before - are they British?
idrewsomefishes
+2
Level 32
Oct 25, 2014
I'm British and I knew all of those so I guess so. They all sound pretty British and St Ives is in Cornwall so!
ander217
+1
Level 74
Oct 27, 2014
I'm American but a grandmother who knows her Mother Goose, and I thought this was easy-peasy.
GOFREOPANDAS
+1
Level 14
Oct 25, 2014
never heard of red skies at night a sailors delight
LarryLovage
+1
Level 55
Oct 26, 2014
They don't have shepherds in America. They have cowboys! ;-)
beetboy12
+1
Level 36
Oct 29, 2014
Is Red Sky at Night a nursery rhyme? Thought it was just an old farmers almanac type thing, like "knee-high by the 4th of July." It's not a whole poem is it?
DavidL123
+1
Level 10
Feb 2, 2015
all right with 1:09 to spare!
YachtWarbler
+1
Level 60
Apr 3, 2015
I only knew the St ives one because of Die Hard With A Vengeance. Thank you Simon Gruber!
Punewolf
+1
Level 68
Oct 9, 2015
Red sky at night shepherds delight red sky in the morning shepherds house on fire
AwesomeAnna10
+1
Level 27
Apr 27, 2016
Red sky at night, shepherds delight

red sky in the morning, sailors warning

samiamco
+2
Level 68
Sep 14, 2016
Okay, here's the definitive (as definitive as one can be about these things) word on pocketful vs. pocket full. This nursery rhyme's first appearance in print was in 1881, and here it is, courtesy of Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23794/23794-h/23794-h.htm#Page_52. It's pocket full. Quizmaster, I can see keeping pocketful as an alternative spelling, but will you pretty please accept the correct one? Thank you :-)
samiamco
+1
Level 68
Sep 14, 2016
And while I'm complaining :-D ~ I believe the red sky thing is from the *Bible*, and reworked into rhyming couplets centuries later, but still waaaay before Mother Goose. And it was actually for sailors because it's useful to know, not for kids' entertainment. | Okay, I'll stop complaining now! :-)
DonTheLamplighter
+2
Level 86
Mar 28, 2017
Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard

To get her poor daughter a dress

When she got there, the cupboard was bare

And so was her daughter, I guess

JonOfKent
+1
Level 60
Feb 25, 2022
Red sky at night: shepherd's delight.

Sheep drowned in morning: global warming.

freya0123
+1
Level 15
Apr 18, 2017
this is really bugging me its NOT Red sky at night, sailor's delight. It's red sky at night sheperds delight red in the morning sailors warning
ander217
+3
Level 74
Dec 12, 2017
If only someone had told us sooner.
Dimby
+1
Level 82
Sep 14, 2021
No, I checked with Mother Goose. She said that many nursery rhymes change over time since they're just catchy little rhymes for children. But she said you're definitely wrong and no one should mix the shepherd and sailors.
muFin
+2
Level 78
Dec 12, 2017
I think the ring a rosey one must be an American version, as the British one is : "ring-a ring-a roses, a pocket full of poses". Apparently it comes from the time of the black death where people would wear wreaths of flowers to ward of the miasmas! Hence 'atishoo, atishoo, we all fall down [dead]."
ander217
+1
Level 74
Dec 12, 2017
Yes, it is the version in my American Mother Goose book. "Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down."
stylus
+1
Level 79
Feb 22, 2019
+1, and even if that origin is apocryphal it makes more sense than 'ring around the rosy' (what even is a rosy?)
ander217
+1
Level 74
Feb 22, 2019
Had to look that one up. According to Wikipedia: "rosie" (literally: rose tree, from the French rosier). Yours is the British version, mine is the American version, and there is an India version which is, "Ringa ringa roses, pocket full of poses, husha busha, we all fall down."
Maladroit
+1
Level 50
Dec 12, 2017
Fun fact: the 'Little Miss Muffet' of the twelfth clue refers to Mary Queen of Scots, and the spider to religious reformer John Knox, who helped bring about the reform that ousted her and replaced her with James I and VI (first James of England, sixth of Scotland). The more you know.
plattitude
+2
Level 95
Dec 12, 2017
[citation needed]

There is a long tradition of trying to link nursery rhymes to past political figures, but it is almost never true.

KirstenB
+1
Level 64
Dec 12, 2017
18/18 with 3:03 remaining. These were super easy to recall since the answers are stored deeply in my long term memory bank.
Moon101
+1
Level 36
Dec 12, 2017
I thought it was ring around a Rosie ashes ashes and we all fell down probably just me
IsleAuHaulte
+2
Level 92
Oct 25, 2019
I thought Jill came down with $2-50?....
Charliezard
+1
Level 67
Nov 16, 2021
gg ez
HappyQuizzer
+1
Level 68
Feb 2, 2023
I didn't know the starlight nursery rhyme but got it from the Madonna song lucky star :)
Euronick61
+1
Level 69
Jun 27, 2023
We always sang 'Ring a ring o' roses, a pocketful of posies, atishoo atishoo we all fall down'
RoosterIllusion
+1
Level 46
May 26, 2024
Apparently, none of the Andrew Dice Clay versions work....
rabble
+1
Level 68
Jul 15, 2024
Here we see represented in the comments, level 77, 84, 78, 65, 92... we should make some quizzes darnnit. Or nominate some more
LKWH
+1
Level 43
Jul 29, 2024
Totally agree with beetboy12...how is the "red sky at night" saying a nursery rhyme? There are other nursery rhymes not already included that ARE actually nursery rhymes and not just something straight out of the book of old wives' tales.
Alexquiz17
+1
Level 94
Sep 30, 2025
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water.

I don’t know what they did up there but now they’ve got a daughter

rumyantsev
+1
Level 70
Oct 31, 2025
Don't know how widespread it is, but I always learned the rain one as come again "some other day" (Western US). Interesting how regional these are.
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