What are little boys made of?

What are little boys made of?

Snips and snails and puppy dogs tails

that's what little boys are made of.

What are little girls made of?

Sugar and spice and all things nice

that's what little girls are made of.

This poem is from the early 19th century and is a quite blatant stereotyping of male and female roles in society at the time(and perhaps even now still.) 

It is part of a larger work called "What is the world made of" and goes on to say

What are young men made of, made of? 

What are young men made of? 

Sighs and leers and crocodile tears; 

That's what young men are made of.

What are young women made of, made of?

What are young women made of? 

Rings and jings and other fine things;

That's what young women are made of.

What are our fathers made of, made of? 

What are our fathers made of? 

Pipes and smoke and collars choke; 

That's what our fathers are made of.

What are our mothers made of, made of? 

What are our mothers made of? 

Ribbons and laces and sweet pretty faces; 

That's what our mothers are made of.

http://hopealexander.hubpages.com/hub/Sugar-and-Spice-And-all-Things-Manly

It definitely shaped my own early opinions of boys and girls. I thought I was a princess and acted accordingly, and forgave little boys their flaws because it was predisposed to them. I might be that way too had I the same ingredients.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary...

Mary Mary quite contrary,

how does your garden grow?

With silver bells

and cockleshells

and pretty maids all in a row.

This poem/nursery rhyme was written in the 1700s. There are multiple interpretations of what the poem was originally about, but most of them suggest that it is about Mary Tudor or "Bloody Mary," The "pretty maids" are said to refer to the guillotines used at the time. The silver bells and cockle shells were torture devices, and  the questioning of her garden's growth a jab at the fact that she had failed to produce an heir after many miscarriages.

These are, however, still just theories, and the poem has still managed to gain other more pleasant connotations such as it's referencing in the book "The Secret Garden." 
It is also thought by some to have been written about Mary Queen of Scots and the Catholicism of the time.

(see http://socyberty.com/history/the-gory-history-of-mary-mary-quite-contrary/, http://socyberty.com/folklore/the-tudor-origin-of-the-mary-mary-quite-contrary-nursery-rhyme/, http://www.mothergooseclub.com/rhymes_parent.php?id=117)

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Mary Had a Little Lamb

its fleece was white as snow

and everywhere that Mary went

the lamb was sure to go.

It followed her to school one day

which was against the rule.

It made the children laugh and play 

to see a lamb at school.

 Mary Had a Little Lamb was written by Victorian novelist and poet, Sarah Josepha Hale.

She is also known as one of the key petitioners in the creation of Thanksgiving day.

  "Today, she is considered the most prominent American woman engaged in literary enterprise in the mid-nineteenth century."- http://www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Hale__Sarah_Josepha.html 

Here is the letter Hale wrote to Abraham Lincoln requesting that Thanksgiving become a public holiday.

My Nursery Rhymes

As a child I was sung Nursery Rhymes as I was rocked to sleep on a wicker rocking chair which I am to inherrit oneday. I had the books. I had the records and tapes. Hearing them now reminds me of both the physical objects and of the events of my childhood.
It was probably as I was growing up that their own origins became apparent to me. As people began making films either based on the stories themselves, or in which they are told by one character to another, a new type of nostalgia seems to become attached. These stories were told to my parents as children, and their parents, and their parents, and so if illustrated or depicted, they might be stylised accordingly to the times.

From the long list of nursery rhymes I grew up with, I have chosen three to pursue and explore in greater detail.

• What are little boys made of?

• Mary had a little lamb &

• Mary, Mary, quite contrary

While all of the nursery rhymes I know are special to me, some feel especially personal. I feel a sense of ownership over them.