According to Random House's Max Minckler, as late as 1941 the Society was condemning 100 of the most common nursery rhymes, including Humpty Dumpty and Three Blind Mice, for "harbouring unsavoury elements".
"A lot of children's literature has a very dark origin," explained Seth Lerer, dean of arts and humanities at the University California to Today.com. "Nursery rhymes are part of long-standing traditions of parody and a popular political resistance to high culture and royalty." Indeed, in a time when to caricature royalty or politicians was punishable by death, nursery rhymes proved a potent way to smuggle in coded or thinly veiled messages in the guise of children's entertainment.
In largely illiterate societies, the catchy sing-song melodies helped people remember the stories and, crucially, pass them on to the next generation.
Now, that you already know the gruesome hidden meanings behind these nursery rhymes would you still chant them to your little ones?
YOU ARE READING
Nursery rhymes and their dark side
PoesíaUnknowingly when we sing these nursery rhymes we engage our children with centuries-old tradition that seems harmless. Courtesy of The express Tribune
