Nursery Rhyme Reflections

[Hubert]

I was recently thinking about this nursery rhyme. I don't get it. I know no one really cares at all my little breakdown of it, but here it goes anyway. Here are the lyrics:

The farmer in the dell
The farmer in the dell
Hi-ho, the derry-o
The farmer in the dell

And the farmer takes a wife
The farmer takes a wife
Hi-ho, the derry-o
The farmer takes a wife

And the wife takes the child
The wife takes the child
Hi-ho, the derry-o
The wife takes the child

And the child takes the nurse
The child takes the nurse
Hi-ho, the derry-o
The child takes the nurse

And the nurse takes the dog
The nurse takes the dog
Hi-ho, the derry-o
The nurse takes the dog

And the dog takes the cat
The dog takes the cat
Hi-ho, the derry-o
The dog takes the cat

And the cat takes the mouse
The cat takes the mouse
Hi-ho, the derry-o
The cat takes the mouse

And the mouse takes the cheese
The mouse takes the cheese
Hi-ho, the derry-o
The mouse takes the cheese

And the cheese stands alone
The cheese stands alone
Hi-ho, the derry-o
The cheese stands alone

First off, why is the farmer in a computer? Oh wait, actually, "dell" means a small valley. So basically the farmer is in a small valley. They never really say why he's there in the first place. Then there's a hi-ho, which they apparently stole from Kermit, and then derry-o, some non-lexical vocables (according to Wikipedia). It's not really explained, but I guess the farmer gets lonely sitting in a small valley by himself, so he leaves to get his wife to go back. BUT WAIT! It says the farmer takes "a wife," which I guess that means he left the valley and got married? Then I guess they go back to the valley. Or was this person already in the valley? But then I guess they'd have to leave to get married, as I don't think there was anyone there to marry them.

9 months and some non-lexical vocables later, they apparently have a child. Then the child apparently needs a nurse, so they take a nurse down to the valley. So as of this point, we have a farmer, his wife, a newborn baby, and a nurse, in a small valley, and there may also be a minister down there. But the nurse is a dog-lover, so she takes her dog along. The dog for some reason takes a cat along. Since we all know dogs and cats don't get along, we'll assume the dog chased a cat down to the valley. But then, the cat takes a mouse along, so we must have a 3-animal chase going on here:

Dog----->Cat----->Mouse

Then the mouse decides he may be hungry, so he takes some cheese. Now, the cheese can't really take anything along (since he's just a piece of cheese), so the next stanza says that the cheese stands alone, even though he's with the mouse. And cheese can't really stand either.

Finally, the song randomly ends. We have a farmer, his wife, a newborn baby, a nurse, a dog, a cat, a mouse, a piece of cheese, and and a possible minister down in this small valley. So by now you can imagine that it's pretty crowded down there. And the story just ends there. We have all these people and animals down in this small valley, a few non-lexical vocables, and that's it. These people just stay in there singing non-lexical vocables. What a great life.

Hopefully everyone will share what they think about this important issue, just to show I'm not the only person crazy enough to write about nursery rhymes.

 

[CensoredAlso]

All I can think of is that Buffy episode where the phrase "the cheese stands alone" figured heavily, lol.

 

[Dominicboo1]

Simple the cat ate the mouse. The dog ate the cat. The nurse didn't know how vicious her dog was so she bought a new one. She abandoned the child who whined until the nurse was fired. The wife got tired with the child's crying and put him up for adoption. The farmer loved his son so much he divorced his wife. He was very lonely, so he left the dell to marry new wife and child, but left the poor cheese to stand alone. And they all live happily ever after well.....except the mouse, the cat, the dog, and the cheese but hey dairy abuse will always be an issue!

 

[Vincent L]

Over-analyses of nursery rhymes

 

[Sgt Floyd]

over analyzing stuff is fun though

 

[Fragglemuppet]

Otherwise more than half the contents of this forum wouldn't exist... lol

Anyway, all this stuff is hilarious! I think this song was meant as some sort of learning game for children, but I have no idea what it could be trying to teach. For some reason the idea of it being a counting game comes to mind, but I have no idea how it works as such.
As far as anylizing nursery rhymes, I love it! Most of them are, at least according to some sources, quite creepy!

 

[Mo Frackle]

Wee Willie Winkie rins through the toon,
Up stairs an' doon stairs in his nicht-gown,
Tirlin' at the window, crying at the lock,
"Are the weans in their bed, for it's now ten o'clock?"

Do I even need to go into how sketchy this nursery rhyme is?