Talk:Mary Had a Little Lamb

Note
Removed vandalism from user Invertedchords. I forgot to add to my edit. Will (talk) 13:12, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

The poem originally was created by nuns in france in the 1600's its origins have been lost to the updated poem by Hale whom changed many of the other verses. The poem was used to teach kids, the nuns were teaching them in school. If you really think about the citation in the poem: "Mary had a little lamb..." Who is Mary? and who is the little lamb? if you think about it, Mary mother of Jesus and Jesus the lamb. "...his fleece was white as snow..." Jesus when he returned to the apostles his hair was white as snow. "...everywhere Mary went the lamb was sure to go..." this was changed by Hale it actually was cited: "...every where the lamb went Mary was sure to go..." If you think about the first verse in the poem you would realize that it makes more sense in meaning. It was about Mary and Jesus. This whole blunder about this theif of a person known as Hale who stole the saying and wrote it herself so she could become rich. Ridiculous. Maybe we should start by learning the history in other countries before reading the history of America. American history is corrupt and full of lies it is filled with theives and liars. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Anthonycarlucci (talk • contribs) 04:59, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

Lyrics
The book in the photo has totally different wording to the text quoted as the rhyme. The one in the photo is the one I know as the 'original', and is read as a poem, whereas the one in the text is sung. It would be helpful if the origination of the two different versions was explained; I believe the short one was written first but have no source for this. --86.142.157.183 02:19, 20 August 2006 (UTC)
 * I have tried to address this in my edits. Robert K S 12:07, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

The book that I have (I cannot find it at the moment) has a totally different version of this poem. My version is from a poem book published in the 1800's I believe, and the poem goes like this: Mary had a little lamb who's fleece was white a snow. And every where that Mary went the lamb sure to go.

It followed her to school one day which was against the rules It made the children laugh and play to see a lamb at school Then Mary took a little club and beat it for a spell Then they had it fried next day and it went very well.

Where does this fit? --Dodiewayne (talk) 02:19, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

I have never heard the above, but I have heard a final verse after "mary loves the lamb you know the teacher did reply" which is as follows:

"And you each gentle animal Animal Animal And you each gentle animal In confidence may bind And make him follow at your will At your will at your will And make him follow at your will If you are only kind." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Evcab (talk • contribs) 04:54, 11 June 2011 (UTC)

Recital voice
Can we get someone who doesn't sound like a total queer to recite the poem? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.89.186.144 (talk • contribs) 23:51, 7 July 2007
 * The recital is perfectly fine--Lionelbrits 15:50, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Origin of Melody -- contradiction
The "Merrily We Roll Along" article says the melody was written in the 1840s for another song, but this article says the melody was adapted by Mason from Mozart. 68.161.162.165 (talk) 16:00, 6 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Yep, a puzzlement. They question is, what tune by Mozart? One thing is for sure, "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Merrily We Roll Along" use the same tune. Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? 18:43, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

"Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Merrily We Roll Along" have very similar melodies, but they are not the same. The last two notes of the first line are different. The two melodies are similar enough that one may very well be derived from the other. But as for Mozart, unless someone can cite an authoritative source, or name the Mozart piece that the melody supposedly came from, then I will delete the statement. It does not appear to be based in fact. 139.68.134.1 (talk) 18:05, 16 September 2008 (UTC)


 * The last two notes of the first line are different? Not in the version I always sang (and heard).  (To complicate things further, "Merrily We Roll Along" is given as the chorus of "Good Night Ladies" in the article on that song!)  Kostaki mou (talk) 22:42, 6 November 2014 (UTC)

Not the earliest recording
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/arts/27soun.html?_r=1 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.68.134.1 (talk) 17:59, 16 September 2008 (UTC)


 * nice to read, but then , can it be told that the first really playable recording contained this verses ? edison tin foil recording , in my eyes an important trivia --Konfressor (talk) 09:43, 20 June 2015 (UTC)

Audio is incorrect
This is the correct tune of the song (skipping the intro of course). The media link posted is not the normal American version. I assume it's the British version. Softlavender (talk) 00:01, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Strange, the media version in the article sounds more like the version I have known in the US than the one you linked to. — al-Shimoni  (talk) 21:44, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

Suggested external link
Here's the rhyme's visualisation in Poem Viewer: an interactive tool from Oxford University that graphs the rhymes, consonance/assonance, and other properties of text. MartinPoulter Jisc (talk) 11:38, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

How did Hale know about the lamb?
>"There are two competing theories on the origin of this poem. One holds that Roulstone wrote the first four lines and that the final twelve lines, less childlike than the first, were composed by Sarah Josepha Hale; the other is that Hale was responsible for the entire poem."

If Hale wrote the rest of the poem, then how did she know about the first four verses? Did Roulstone or Mary give them to Hale? And if she wrote the whole thing, then how did she know that Mary took her lamb to school? This is very confusing. It would be good if someone who knows how all this came about could expand this section in the article. Rissa, Guild of Copy Editors (talk) 23:42, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

I've seen one photocopy of an article with unknown origin and one from a genealogy society that speaks about Mary, Roulstone, and the teacher, Polly Kimball. They also comment that Hale had requested readers of Godey's send her poems. The teacher's letter is reprinted in the article, and the additional 3 stanzas are mentioned. Here is a cite for the genealogy article: George Bounacos (talk) 18:39, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

Korean version
someone added this onto the English page; I removed it because it's irrelevant

Korean version 떴다떴다 비행기 날아라 날아라 높이높이 날아라 우리 비행기

Korean romanization Tteotda tteotda bihaenggi nalara nalara nopinopi nalara oori bihaenggi

Human-potato hybrid (talk) 23:26, 25 January 2019 (UTC)


 * Google Translate gives "Let's fly Let's fly Let's fly Let's fly Let's fly Let's fly"? Is this coded hate speech? Martinevans123 (talk) 23:28, 25 January 2019 (UTC)