PART V

RHYTHMIC ARTS

THE Rhythmic Arts include rimes, songs, singing games and dances. They supply the most effective means of advancing the child's esthetic life.

The rimes are classics as are also the singing games and folk dances, but the best child's songs, with one or two exceptions, are modern.

RIMES

The following nursery rimes are most suitable for a child to hear and to learn. Elocutionary effects that are not prompted from the inner spirit of the child are usually strained and often absurd and should neither be encouraged nor allowed.

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man.

So I will, master, as fast as I can.
Pat it, and prick it, and mark it with T,
And put in the oven for Tommy and me.

Little Bo-peep has lost her sheep,

And can't tell where to find them;

Leave them alone, and they 'll come home,
And bring their tails behind them.

Little Bo-peep fell fast asleep,

And dreamt she heard them bleating;

But when she awoke, she found it a joke,
For still they all were fleeting.

Then up she took her little crook,

Determined for to find them;

She found them, indeed, but it made her heart bleed, For they'd left their tails behind them.

Ba-a, ba-a, black sheep, have you any wool?
Yes, marry, have I, three bags full;

One for my master, one for his dame,

And one for the little boy that lives in the lane.

Little Miss Muffett

Sat on a tuffett,

Eating her curds and whey;

There came a black spider,

And sat down beside her,

Which frightened Miss Muffett away.

Daffy-down-dilly has come up to town,
In a yellow petticoat and a green gown.

Hey, diddle, diddle,

The cat and the fiddle,

The cow jumped over the moon;

The little dog laugh'd

To see such craft,

And the dish ran away with the spoon.

Bye, baby Bunting,
Father's gone a-hunting,
Gone to get a rabbit skin

To wrap the baby Bunting in.

Little Jack Horner sat in a corner,
Eating his Christmas pie;

He put in his thumb, and pulled out a plum,
And said, "What a good boy am I!"

Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn,

The sheep's in the meadow, the cow's in the corn; What! is this the way you mind your sheep, Under the hay-cock, fast asleep?

I had a little pony,

His name was Dapple-gray,

I lent him to a lady,

To ride a mile away;

She whipp'd him, she slash'd him,
She rode him through the mire;

I would not lend my pony now
For all the lady's hire.

Pussy cat, pussy cat,
Where have you been?
I've been to London,
To visit the queen.
Pussy cat, pussy cat,
What did you there?

I frightened a little mouse
Under her chair.

Some little mice sat in a barn to spin,

Pussy came by and popped her head in;

66

66

Shall I come in and cut your threads off?"

O! no, kind ma'am, you will snap our heads off!"

Tom he was a piper's son,

He learnt to play when he was young,
But all the tune that he could play,
Was "Over the hills and far away."