Willy took his sister Nell... can you identify this?
je...@daisy.uchicago.edu
Willy took his sister Nell
Threw her down the drinking well
She's there yet because it kilt her
Now we have to buy a filter.
Can anyone tell me where this comes from? Thank you.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff Adler je...@zaphod.uchicago.edu
Math Department jeff%zap...@gargoyle.uchicago.edu
University of Chicago jd...@tank.uchicago.edu
Johnathan Vail
Willy took his sister Nell
Threw her down the drinking well
She's there yet because it kilt her
Now we have to buy a filter.
Can anyone tell me where this comes from? Thank you.
I'v seen a lot of them:
[forgotten lines about willy making toast with Nurse who falls
in the fire]
And what made it ten times worse
Is all the toast burned up with Nurse
I also remember ones about his brother and dynamite...
Don't know whaere they came from but I will look into it...
Segal's Law: A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two
watches is never sure.
_____
| | Johnathan Vail | tegra!N1...@ulowell.edu
|Tegra| (508) 663-7435 | N1...@145.110-,145.270-,444.2+,448.625-
-----
Tim Bray
Willy took his sister Nell
Threw her down the drinking well
She's there yet because it kilt her
Now we have to buy a filter.
Can anyone tell me where this comes from? Thank you.
Around the turn of the century (I think) there was a brief craze for
poems in this genre, referred to as `Little Willie' poems. They were
distinguished by shortness, snappy rhymes, and horrid heartless
nastiness. We had a book of these around the house when I was a kid,
called `Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes'. Lemme shovel around the
back of my brain, here... ah:
The shorest `Little Willie'
Little Willie
pair of skates
hole in the ice
Pearly Gates
But Willie doesn't always have to appear:
While cooking by the fireside
Nurse fell in the grate and died
And to make things ten times worse
All the toast was burnt with Nurse.
Anybody know any? Want to make some up?
Tim Bray, New OED Project, U of Waterloo
News system
>
> Willy took his sister Nell
> Threw her down the drinking well
> She's there yet because it kilt her
> Now we have to buy a filter.
>
> Can anyone tell me where this comes from? Thank you.
I saw some of these ``Willie'' poems in a book called Beastly Boys and Ghastly
Girls. A friend of mine had a copy, though I've never seen the book elsewhere.
It is very funny in a sick sort of way. Some other macabre poems in it are
about Little Thomas, who eats so much that he explodes; Augustus, who refuses to
eat and dies; and Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout, who ``would not take the garbage
out.''
Cathleen Reiher.
INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation
Santa Monica, California
cath...@ism780.isc.com
{randvax,uunet}!ism780c!cathleen
george.l.sicherman
>
> Willy took his sister Nell
> Threw her down the drinking well
> She's there yet because it kilt her
> Now we have to buy a filter.
>
> Can anyone tell me where this comes from? Thank you.
Notes and Queries, anyone? Well, if my memory serves me ("Ham on rye,
memory!"), the original version is by Harry Graham, writing as Col. D.
Streamer:
In the drinking well
Which the plumber built her,
Aunt Eliza fell.
We must buy a filter.
The "Little Willy" rhymes of the 1930s were probably inspired by
Graham's work. Willy always appears in trochaic tetrameter, AABB.
-:-
"This first pie was something of a mess, containing not
only the flesh of the apples but also their cores, skins,
seeds, stems, and bits of twigs and bark, as is still
customary in New England."
--Len Cool, _American Pie_
--
Col. G. L. Sicherman
g...@odyssey.att.COM
Creative Business Decisions
> Willy took his sister Nell
> Threw her down the drinking well
> She's there yet because it kilt her
> Now we have to buy a filter.
"Little Willies" were the sick humor of an earlier generation, just
as my generation had the "Mommy, Mommy" jokes, and a later one had
the dead baby riddles.
There are hundreds of these. Mr. Anonymous wrote many of them.
Ms. Anonymous wrote most of the rest. Sometimes they collaborated.
Took a drink a week ago;
Now he is no more.
What Willie thought was H2O
Was H2SO4.
Roger Lustig (Q2...@PUCC.BITNET Q2...@pucc.princeton.edu)
REPORT ALL OBSCENE MAIL TO YOUR POTSMASTER
Cindy Tittle
-I saw some of these ``Willie'' poems in a book called Beastly Boys and Ghastly
-Girls. A friend of mine had a copy, though I've never seen the book elsewhere.
-It is very funny in a sick sort of way. Some other macabre poems in it are
-about Little Thomas, who eats so much that he explodes; Augustus, who refuses to
-eat and dies; and Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout, who ``would not take the garbage
-out.''
Waaaaaiiit a minute! I don't know about the "Willie" poems, but
Augustus and Sara Cynthia Sylvia Stout are from "Where The Sidewalk
Ends" by Shel Silverstein. Take my word for this. My sister has all
of Silverstein's works. ("A Light In the Attic", "The Generous Tree"
(or something like that) and others.)
--Cindy
--
| ARPA: tit...@ics.uci.edu OR (better)
Sooner or later, the worst | tittle%i...@orion.cf.uci.edu
possible set of circumstances | UUCP: {sdcsvax|ucbvax}!ucivax!tittle
is bound to occur... | BITNET: clti...@uci.bitnet
What`s in a name?
>Girls. A friend of mine had a copy, though I've never seen the book elsewhere.
>It is very funny in a sick sort of way. Some other macabre poems in it are
>about Little Thomas, who eats so much that he explodes; Augustus, who refuses to
>eat and dies; and Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout, who ``would not take the garbage
>out.''
>
This all is starting to remind me a great deal of the German Nuresery rhyme
book, commonly read through the turn of the century. We used it as a
culture study for the play "Spring Awakening" by Wedekind. It was called
"Struelpeter" (avec umlau. Not sure of the spelling but it pronounces
correctly in German). The scary thing is that these were read as nursery
rhymes in turn-of-the-century Germany! Perhaps this explains the German
disposition about the time of Hitler?
Anyway, I am absolutely certain that the story of a boy who eats so much he
explodes is in there, as well as someone who refuses to eat. There is also
a lovely story about a boy who couldn't keep from "touching himself," who
had his hands cut off by some sort of boogie-man. It then goes on to
describe his humiliating life without hands. Yecchh! No wonder Freud
talked about suppression!
Anyone else familiar with this book?
--mike
--
Mic3hael Sullivan, University of Rochester. "Life is like a sewer, what
Society for the Incurably Pompous. you get out of it, depends on
Internet: misu...@uhura.cc.rochester.edu what you put into it."
UUCP: ...!rochester!ur-cc!misu_ltd -- Tom Lehrer
Vicki Powers
[ some Little Willie poems ]
>
> Anybody know any? Want to make some up?
>
In my younger days, we used to recite :
Little Willie took an ax,
Gave his sister 40 whacks,
Said mother as she got the mop,
"These messy games have got to stop"
--
Vicki Powers | vi...@mathcs.emory.edu PREFERRED
Emory University | {sun!sunatl,gatech}!emory!vicki UUCP
Dept of Math and CS | vicki@emory NON-DOMAIN BITNET
Atlanta, GA 30322 |
Creative Business Decisions
>This all is starting to remind me a great deal of the German Nuresery rhyme
>book, commonly read through the turn of the century. We used it as a
>culture study for the play "Spring Awakening" by Wedekind. It was called
>"Struelpeter" (avec umlau. Not sure of the spelling but it pronounces
>correctly in German).
Actually "Struuwelpeter." Dutch original, perhaps? (Spelling
IS that way in German. It means "Unkempt Peter."
>The scary thing is that these were read as nursery
>rhymes in turn-of-the-century Germany! Perhaps this explains the German
>disposition about the time of Hitler?
I think it's much older, like 1840's. It is still in print, and
given to many children. A classic, they call it.
My mother tells me that she and her sister were not allowed to have one.
(Progressive grandparents!) Guests would come a-calling, as would
relatives, discover that the children had no Struuwelpeter, and would
buy them one quick, or send one at the next birthday. Grandpa had a
stack of them in the back of a closet!
>Anyway, I am absolutely certain that the story of a boy who eats so much he
>explodes is in there, as well as someone who refuses to eat. There is also
>a lovely story about a boy who couldn't keep from "touching himself," who
>had his hands cut off by some sort of boogie-man. It then goes on to
>describe his humiliating life without hands. Yecchh! No wonder Freud
>talked about suppression!
I think that's Little Suck-his-thumb. The tailor finally comes
and cuts off his thumbs, as was threatened/promised.
Other winners: the girl who plays with matches: in an illustration
I still remember, her two cats are up on their hindpaws, imploring
her to stop. Of course she winds up as a small pile of ashes in
her red shoes.
Hans-Guck-in-die-Luft, who never watches where he's going, and falls
in the river and drowns.
And so on.
I tend to agree: it explains a LOT about the Germans.
Erich Kaestner (of Emil and the Detectives fame) wrote a much nicer
set of cautionary tales (illustrations by Walter Trier, of course)
called Das verhexte Telefon (The Bewitched Telephone). The overeating
braggart just loses his lunch. The bully gets knocked out by the
new kid on the block. A sort of reform-Struuwelpeter.
Kaestner IS quite good, and German kids get a lot of him (60 years
after the fact). It could be worse.
Creative Business Decisions
>In my younger days, we used to recite :
> Little Willie took an ax,
> Gave his sister 40 whacks,
> Said mother as she got the mop,
> "These messy games have got to stop"
Which leads me to wonder whether the whole Little Willie phenomenon
emanates from the Lizzie Borden case, and the public fascination
with it in all its (truly) gory details.
After all,
Lizzie Borden took an ax
And gave her father forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done
She gave her mother forty-one.
Anybody?
Sandra J Loosemore
>I tend to agree: it explains a LOT about the Germans.
I don't think this was something unique to Germans. I always thought
that the story about the kid who eats so much he explodes was an old
Finnish folk tale. In the version I heard from my mother (who'd heard
it from her Finnish mother), the kid's name was Mutti, and he ate too
much makkara (sausage). She also had a book of Grimm's fairy tales
(in English) that was published around the turn of the century that
included some really gruesome versions -- Cinderella's stepsisters cut
off their own toes to get their feet to fit in the glass slipper, and
the like. My mother once commented that violence on TV can't be too
bad for kids, since it seems pretty tame compared to all these
horrible stories about mutilation and torture that her generation was
raised on.
-Sandra Loosemore (san...@cs.utah.edu)
george.l.sicherman
> > correctly in German).
>
> Actually "Struuwelpeter." Dutch original, perhaps? (Spelling
> IS that way in German. It means "Unkempt Peter."
This again! Well, topics *do* come and go on the Net.... It's
"Struwwelpeter" with two w's. Not high German perhaps, but hardly
Dutch!
> > The scary thing is that these were read as nursery
> > rhymes in turn-of-the-century Germany! Perhaps this explains the German
> > disposition about the time of Hitler?
>
> I think it's much older, like 1840's. It is still in print, and
> given to many children. A classic, they call it.
Moreover, it was hugely successful internationally, probably the
most popular children's book ever printed. Translated into dozens
of languages. (Mark Twain was sufficiently disgusted with the
lackluster English translation to write one himself. I've read a
copy of it; it's an interesting curiosity.)
So I don't believe you can blame Dr. Hoffmann for Hitler! After all,
there's some gruesome stuff in the Grimms' collections too.
> ... Guests would come a-calling, as would
> relatives, discover that the children had no Struuwelpeter, and would
> buy them one quick, or send one at the next birthday. Grandpa had a
> stack of them in the back of a closet!
Another old custom. One reason for the book's record sales may have
been that they wore out so fast. Kids *liked* those stories, because
they weren't stuffy. Hoffmann drew the pictures himself, which may have
helped. The illustrations are often the inspiration for the text.
> > Anyway, I am absolutely certain that the story of a boy who
> > eats so much he explodes is in there, as well as someone who
> > refuses to eat. There is also a lovely story about a boy who
> > couldn't keep from "touching himself," who had his hands cut
> > off by some sort of boogie-man. It then goes on to describe
> > his humiliating life without hands. Yecchh! No wonder Freud
> > talked about suppression!
>
> I think that's Little Suck-his-thumb. The tailor finally comes
> and cuts off his thumbs, as was threatened/promised.
Right you are. The stories about the glutton and the masturbator
must be in some other collection. Maybe he means little Conrad
who would not eat his soup? "(4) Now he's looking like a thread.
(5) And on the fifth day, he was dead." And the grave is depicted
with a soup tureen resting on it.
> Other winners: the girl who plays with matches: in an illustration
> I still remember, her two cats are up on their hindpaws, imploring
> her to stop. Of course she winds up as a small pile of ashes in
> her red shoes. ...
It's fun to reminisce about these old "lustige Geschichten und
drollige Bilder," as Hoffmann calls them. Coincidentally, there
is a parallel discussion in this newsgroup about _Beastly Boys and
Ghastly Girls,_ which sounds like one of Graham's titles. And does
anybody know Belloc's aptly titled _Cautionary Tales?_
-:-
When we overtook him he was climbing a gate, and was gazing
earnestly into the field, where a horse, a cow, and a kid were
browsing amicably together. "For its father, a _Horse,_ he
murmured to himself. "For its mother, a _Cow._ For their dear
little child, a _little_ Goat, is the most curiousest thing I
ever seen in my world!"
--Lewis Carroll, _Sylvie and Bruno Concluded_
What`s in a name?
>
>>"Struelpeter" (avec umlau. Not sure of the spelling but it pronounces
>>correctly in German).
>
>Actually "Struuwelpeter." Dutch original, perhaps? (Spelling
>IS that way in German. It means "Unkempt Peter."
>
Thanks, Roger. It's been a while since I'd seen it. Now that I stare it in
the face, that was definitely the spelling. I remember wondering why one
didn't pronounce the 'v' sound. Perhaps that's because it is from Dutch?
While it was in fact much older dating from the early 19th Century, I
believe it was still commonly read up until the early 1900's. I wonder if
it sounds quite as horrid in the original German? Or maybe even worse?
News system
>
>Anyway, I am absolutely certain that the story of a boy who eats so much he
>explodes is in there, as well as someone who refuses to eat.
I think that Augustus (Not any soup for me, I say / Oh, take that nasty soup
away / I won't have any soup today!) might be from Streulpeter, but I don't
think that Little Thomas is. Maybe it was translated and reworked by some
British person into its English form. Anyway, the last two stanzas are:
Any sorrowing relation
Asked for an elucidation
Of the awful detonation
Was obliged to say:
``Germans have not been to bomb us.
It was only Little Thomas.
Who, alas, departed from us
In that noisy way.''
(I don't think a German would write about his countrymen bombing someone like
this.) I tried to put the entire poem on paper from memory, but I'm missing a
stanza.
James E. Bouyack
> Threw her down the drinking well
> She's there yet because it kilt her
> Now we have to buy a filter.
This and similar humorous and often graphic poems are collectively known as
'Little Willies,' named after the most often appearing villian. My father had
a very old joke book (I think it was his as a boy) which contained a whole
collection of these. I don't know the origin or where you might find more,
but I would think a good bookstore would have a joke book of this type. My
father's was quite big and contained many chapters, including ethnic jokes,
etc.
Jim Bouyack (bouyackj@gtephx)
UUCP: ...uunet!zardoz!hrc!gtephx!bouyackj
Shelley Wilmoth
[stuff about Little Willie poems]
> Anybody know any? Want to make some up?
>
> Tim Bray, New OED Project, U of Waterloo
One I remember is:
Willie found some dynamite
Couldn't understand it quite
Curiosity never pays
It rained Willie seven days.
Mary Hilchie
>Around the turn of the century (I think) there was a brief craze for
>poems in this genre, referred to as `Little Willie' poems. They were
>distinguished by shortness, snappy rhymes, and horrid heartless
>nastiness. We had a book of these around the house when I was a kid,
>called `Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes'. Lemme shovel around the
>back of my brain, here... ah:
>The shorest `Little Willie'
> Little Willie
> pair of skates
> hole in the ice
> Pearly Gates
>Anybody know any? Want to make some up?
Tim, I have two contributions to make. The first poem is one that my daughter
learned in school and the second one is mine.
1
---
Little Willie, from the mirror,
Licked the mercury right off,
Thinking in his childish error
It would cure his whooping cough.
At the funeral, his mother
Smartly said to Mrs. Brown,
"'twas a chilly day for Willie
When the mercury went down."
2
---
Little Willie, dropped the bucket,
As he fell into the well;
Children gathered all around him,
Just to hear poor Willie yell.
When his mother came upon them,
She most truthfully did say:
"Willie must have kicked the bucket,
Now he can't go out to play."
These poems sure are horrible and heartless!
Mary
--
Mary Hilchie
dou...@alzabo.uucp
uunet!mitel!sce!scs!alzabo!dougall
Adam Crossland
>nastiness. We had a book of these around the house when I was a kid,
>called `Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes'. Lemme shovel around the
>back of my brain, here... ah:
>
>
>Anybody know any? Want to make some up?
but I am not positive :
Little Billy in his brand new sash
Fell into the fire and burnt to ash
Now although the room grows chilly,
I haven't the heart to poke poor Billy.
>
>Tim Bray, New OED Project, U of Waterloo
Adam A. Crossland, Rest and Relaxation at the moment
``Stevie Washington - the angry youth - born to die - New York's New York -
turn of the century - ALL CRIME'' This week's episode : Mummuwaldi
T.R.Hopkins
> Little Willy, while playing with matches,
> Fell in the fire and was burnt to ashes.
> And now altho' the room gets chilly,
> I haven't the heart to stoke up poor Willy.
This is very similar to "Tender-heartedness" from Ruthless
Rhymes for Heartless Homes by Harry Graham.
Billy, in one of his nice new sashes,
Fell in the fire and was burnt to ashes
Now, although the room grows chilly,
I haven't the heart to poke poor Willy.
Tim
--
Tim Hopkins, { t...@ukc.ac.uk
Computing Laboratory, trh%u...@cs.ucl.ac.uk
University of Kent, na.ho...@score.stanford.edu }
Canterbury CT2 7NF, Kent, UK.
sl17...@silver.bacs.indiana.edu
I think these little gems come from "Ruthless Ryhmes for Heartless Homes",
pre-1930, author unknown. My father used to recite them to me when I was
little....
Billy, in one of his nice new sashes,
Now, although the room grows chilly,
(wife drops baby into fire--I don't
remember these 2 lines, but...)
father was so awf'ly vexed,
"my dear," he said,"Whatever next?"
Another of Dad's favorites, probably not from the same source but in the
same genre--
Lizzie Borden took an axe
and gave her mother forty whacks
when she saw what she had done
she gave her mother forty-one.
If you enjoy this sort of thing look for poetry by Hilaire (Sp?)Belloc
--his collections include _The_Bad_Child's_Book_of_Beasts_,_More_Beasts_
for_Worse_Children_, and numerous"cautionary verses" featuring such
children as "Matilda, who told lies, and was burned to death." Great fun.
-Mary "Dusty" Rodes
Susie Reynolds
>
>So I don't believe you can blame Dr. Hoffmann for Hitler! After all,
>there's some gruesome stuff in the Grimms' collections too.
By Dr. Hoffman, do you mean E. T. A. Hoffman, the author of Der
Sandman and other gruesome literature read by adults?
Just curious,
Ja, ich hab' es gelesen und nicht verstanden.
Mitchell S. Gorman
> In article <14...@watdragon.waterloo.edu> (Tim Bray) writes:
> [stuff about Little Willie poems]
>
> > Anybody know any? Want to make some up?
> >
> > Tim Bray, New OED Project, U of Waterloo
>
"Alas for little Willie,
We'll not see Willie more:
For what he thought was H20,
Was H2SO4!"
Apologies if that's already been seen. Apologies to chemists in
any case! :^)
Mitch @ Rockwell, Anaheim
Disclaimer: I thought I was the only one who remembered these...
P Kivela
>In article <85...@pucc.Princeton.EDU> Q2...@pucc.Princeton.EDU writes:
>>I tend to agree: it explains a LOT about the Germans.
>
>I don't think this was something unique to Germans. I always thought
>that the story about the kid who eats so much he explodes was an old
>Finnish folk tale. In the version I heard from my mother (who'd heard
>it from her Finnish mother), the kid's name was Mutti, and he ate too
Actually, the name is spelled _Matti_.
>much makkara (sausage). She also had a book of Grimm's fairy tales
I have never heard that tale, but perhaps I belong to a generation which
didn't hear many folk tales, anyway.
>-Sandra Loosemore (san...@cs.utah.edu)
Pertti Kivela
Department of English, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
Internet E-mail to: PKI...@JYLK.JYU.FI OR pki...@tukki.jyu.fi
EARN - " - : PKIVELA@FINJYU
Ordinary mail address: Pertti Kivela
Kp 15 Yla-Saukko
42700 KEURUU
FINLAND
Rod Williams
Yes, indeed! I was raised on that stuff. I remember that "Augustus Horne
was nobly born/ He held the human race in scorn" and that poor Henry King
died from eating string. Great stuff (:-))
Nobody's mentioned Edward Gorey's contemporary cautionary tales, so I
will now input the ghoulish alphabet from his "Gashlycrumb Tinies, or
After the Outing". You'll just have to imagine the illustrations...
A is for Amy, who fell down the stairs
B is for Basil, assaulted by bears
C is for Clara, who wasted away
D is for Desmond, thrown out of a sleigh
E is for Ernest, who choked on a peach
F is for Fanny, sucked dry by a leech
G is for George, smothered under a rug
H is for Hector, done in by a thug
I is for Ida, who drowned in a lake
J is for James, who took lye by mistake
K is for Kate, who was struck by an axe
L is for Leo, who swallowed some tacks
M is for Maud, who was swept out to sea
N is for Neville, who died of ennui
O is for Olive, run through with an awl
P is for Prue, tampled flat in a brawl
Q is for Quentin, who sank in a mire
R is for Rhoda, consumed by a fire
S is for Susan, who perished of fits
T is for Titus, who flew into bits
U is for Una, who slipped down a drain
V is for Victor, squashed under a train
W is for Winnie, embedded in ice
X is for Xerxes, devoured by mice
Y is for Yorick, whose head was knocked in
Z is for Zillah, who drank too much gin
--
Rod Williams * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Bellcore * Don't hang about in the closet - *
Piscataway, New Jersey * Wear yourself out! *
Jan Kok
I found the following source :
The Penguin Poets: Comic and curious verse,
selected by J.M. Cohen. Penguin books, 1952.
p. 96: Little Willie / mirror.
p. 147: Lizzie Borden.
Both are attributed to : Anon.
BTW. Fairly good translations into Dutch exist, like
In Connecticut in een waterput verdronk mijn tante Eefje,
nog jaren later dronk oom het water uitsluitend door een zeefje.
[John O'Mill.]
... 't was een koude dag voor Jantje toen het kwik begon te dalen.
( 't was a chilly day for Willy when the mercury went down.)
j.k. (.signature temporarily under repair)
Johnathan Vail
Here is another reference from a friend who had a file of them:
The poem is part of a series called "little willy" poems for obvious reasons.
There was a book of them, from around the beginning of this century, i think.
Here's another one:
Willie with a thirst for Gore,
Nailed his sister to the Door.
Mother said with humor quaint,
"Willie, dear, don't mar the paint."
"Gravity pulls the trousers down
Morality pulls the trousers up" -- Bedful of Metaphysicians
Col. G. L. Sicherman
> >
> >So I don't believe you can blame Dr. Hoffmann for Hitler! After all,
> >there's some gruesome stuff in the Grimms' collections too.
>
> By Dr. Hoffman, do you mean E. T. A. Hoffman, the author of Der
> Sandman and other gruesome literature read by adults?
No, I mean Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann, author of Struwwelpeter and nothing
else worth mentioning. E.T.A.H. was a pioneer Gothic and rather prolix.
If he had written Struwwelpeter it would certainly have run to three
volumes.
-:-
"The deep hour finds you enthroned in wrack,
An empty glass at your empty hand:
You see, but you do not understand."
be...@vax1.tcd.ie
>
> Tim Bray, New OED Project, U of Waterloo
From 'A random walk in Science':
Little Willie, full of glee,
put radium in Grandma's tea.
Now he thinks it quite a lark
to see her glowing in the dark.
--
Derek Bell
*************************
* db...@maths.tcd.ie * Romanae aeunt Domus!
* be...@vax1.tcd.ie * - Monty Python's Life of Brian
*************************
be...@vax1.tcd.ie
> Notes and Queries, anyone? Well, if my memory serves me ("Ham on rye,
> memory!"), the original version is by Harry Graham, writing as Col. D.
> Streamer:
> In the drinking well
> Which the plumber built her,
> Aunt Eliza fell.
> We must buy a filter.
>
> The "Little Willy" rhymes of the 1930s were probably inspired by
> Graham's work. Willy always appears in trochaic tetrameter, AABB.
I saw the above poem with the following one:
Uncle Joe's gone, you now,
to rest beyond the stars.
Oh how I miss him so,
he had such _good_ cigars!
> Col. G. L. Sicherman
> g...@odyssey.att.COM
Robert Wahl
versions are modified retellings, transformed as might have happened through oral
tradition. If you want to see what Grimm's tales are truly like, you should read
The Juniper Tree - forget the translator, but illustrated by Maurice Sendak.
Quite gruesome at times. =:->
--
Rob Wahl =:-> {...!ncar!ico!auto-trol!robwah}
be...@vax1.tcd.ie
> Anybody know any? Want to make some up?
>
> Tim Bray, New OED Project, U of Waterloo
There was this one from 'A Random walk in Science':
Little Willie, full of glee,
put Radium in Grandma's tea.
Now he thinks it quite a lark
to see her glowing in the dark.
It's been a while sine I read it.
Andrew Siegel
>book, commonly read through the turn of the century. We used it as a
>culture study for the play "Spring Awakening" by Wedekind. It was called
>"Struelpeter" (avec umlau. Not sure of the spelling but it pronounces
>correctly in German). The scary thing is that these were read as nursery
>rhymes in turn-of-the-century Germany! Perhaps this explains the German
>disposition about the time of Hitler?
>
>Anyway, I am absolutely certain that the story of a boy who eats so much he
>explodes is in there, as well as someone who refuses to eat. There is also
>a lovely story about a boy who couldn't keep from "touching himself," who
>had his hands cut off by some sort of boogie-man. It then goes on to
>describe his humiliating life without hands. Yecchh! No wonder Freud
>talked about suppression!
>
>Anyone else familiar with this book?
I happen to own an English translation of "Struwwelpeter", and I can
attest to the fact that it is one of the most gruesome children's
books I've ever seen.
The book consists of a series of vignettes, all in verse, mostly
concerning "bad" children who are unfailingly punished for their
transgressions.
Among the stories:
The story of Cruel Frederick, a young man with a passion for
pulling the wings off of flies and "beating his Mary 'til she
cries." He falls down the stairs and is bitten by his dog.
Fidgety Phillip, who cannot stop fidgeting at the dinner table.
He ends up pulling the entire table cloth (with accompanying fodd
and tableware) down on top of himself. His parents concern: "How
will we eat now?"
Johnny Head-in-the-air, who looks up when he walks. He falls in a
canal and nearly drowns.
Augustus, who would not eat his soup. He starves to death in five
days.
Alice, who plays with matches and is burnt to a little pile of
ashes.
Robert, who goes out in the rain. The wind catches his umbrella
and he sails away into the sky, never to be seen again.
Little Suck-a-thumb, who ignores his mothers warnings against
thumb-sucking, and has his thumbs cut off with a giant pair of
scissors (complete with a color illustration of the surgery being
performed, with dripping blood and screaming child) wielded by
"the great gray tailor".
Struwwelpeter ("Shock-headed Peter"), the title character (whose
portrait decorates the book's cover), who never cuts his hair or
his fingernails.
A hunter who falls asleep in the sun, and who is accosted by a
hare (carrying the hunter's own rifle), who shoots at him and
forces him to fall down a well. (One of the few just punishments
in the book.)
Three boys who continuously pick on a "black-a-moor," and who as
punishment are dipped in a giant ink well by "Old Agrippa."
(Another just punishment.)
The stories are entertaining, and the illustrations are explicit and
frightening. Even Maurice Sendak at his scariest pales when compared
to Struwwelpeter.
Get it if you can find it; it's a gem!
--
Andrew Siegel National Broadcasting Co., New York, NY
{philabs,crdgw1,ge-dab}!nbc1!abs (212)664-5776
Peter Kendell
}
} I happen to own an English translation of "Struwwelpeter", and I can
} attest to the fact that it is one of the most gruesome children's
} books I've ever seen.
It frightened me to death when I was young.
}
} The book consists of a series of vignettes, all in verse, mostly
} concerning "bad" children who are unfailingly punished for their
} transgressions.
}
} Among the stories:
}
} Stuff removed for brevity....
}
} Augustus, who would not eat his soup. He starves to death in five
} days.
I remember this - it starts off something like:
Augustus was a chubby lad,
Fat rosy cheeks Augustus had,
But then one day, one awful day,
That dreadful boy was heard to say,
Take that nasty soup away,
I won't have any soup today!
.
.
.
The days go by; O what a sin
To see him grow so pale and thin!
.
.
This is up there with Hilaire (sp?) Belloc's cautionary tales (The
chief defect of Henry King/ Was eating little bits of string)
and Harry Graham's _Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes_. Some
samples...
Father heard his children scream,
So he threw them in the stream,
Saying as he dropped the third,
"Children should be seen, not heard."
When Baby's cries grew hard to bear,
We put him in the Fridgidaire,
We'd not have done so if we'd known,
That he'd get frozen stiff.
}
} Get it if you can find it; it's a gem!
}
If you don't mind your children needing counselling
afterwards :-)
--
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| Peter Kendell <pe...@tcom.stc.co.uk> |
| ...{uunet!}mcvax!ukc!stc!pete |
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Digital Bitch
> Alice, who plays with matches and is burnt to a little pile of ashes.
Alice? Why Alice, I wonder. I so clearly remember
"Paulinchen war allein zu Haus
Die Eltern waren beide aus"
One could look upon this as a pretty good warning to parents as to what could
happen if you leave your child home alone, and leave matched within the kid's
reach on top of it.
> Struwwelpeter ("Shock-headed Peter"), the title character (whose portrait
> decorates the book's cover), who never cuts his hair or his fingernails.
The first hippie! And so many, many years before his time :-)
> A hunter who falls asleep in the sun, and who is accosted by a hare
> (carrying the hunter's own rifle), who shoots at him and forces him to
> fall down a well. (One of the few just punishments in the book.)
Yeah!
> Get it if you can find it; it's a gem!
Any ideas on how? I mean, who's the publisher over here, etc.? Please email,
because I'm gonna be on vacation for a while and won't get to read the .net
-- thank you very much.
Btw, I never knew it had been translated. Would you happen to know
anything about an English "Max und Moritz"?
>Andrew Siegel National Broadcasting Co., New York, NY
>{philabs,crdgw1,ge-dab}!nbc1!abs (212)664-5776
----------------- Clapton ain't dead -- but Yngwie is God -----------------
Charlotte || Opinions stated above are MINE
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davis barbara r
that deals only with "classics". This was more than a year ago, and
unfortunately, she threw it out expecting that she would see it again.
She has not, and would like to find out more about it, including
what they expect you to buy, book quility, price, address, publisher
used, etc. If you have any info on this club (or another like it)
please send email to me. If the response bounces try:
molnarb@ge-crd
Thanks,
Barbara Molnar General Electric, CR&D
Jan Kok
>Btw, I never knew it had been translated. Would you happen to know
>anything about an English "Max und Moritz"?
I remember having watched a comic movie on tv some time ago
with the verses in English. There was a clear resemblance with
the original I have in German.