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.
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?
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...
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.
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.
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?
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 :-)
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! :-)
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.
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]."
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."
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.
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.
Cubbard?
Cubbord?
Cuppard?
Cupperd?
Just one of those days...
red sky in the morning, sailors warning
To get her poor daughter a dress
When she got there, the cupboard was bare
And so was her daughter, I guess
Sheep drowned in morning: global warming.
There is a long tradition of trying to link nursery rhymes to past political figures, but it is almost never true.