The Children's Book of Children's Rhymes [antikvár]

To the reader Silence in the playground Silence in the street The biggest fool you ever heard Is just about to bleat. It is not easy to say when or where the rhymes in this book were made up, even though some of them mention names and things that can be dated. A few of them are more than a hundred years old. Many of them were circulating when I was eight-in 1933. They are all common property, and there are almost as many versions of each rhyme as there are rhymers. They are not written and published by adults (like most nursery rhymes) but are concocted by children and passed around by word of mouth. Some are sung to popular tunes, or to tunes of their own, while this or that game is played. Different versions of about half the rhymes that follow are known all over the English-speaking world — England, Ireland, Scodand, Wales, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - and some have counterparts in several European languages. I have printed the version I prefer and have avoided punctuation as much as possible. The rhymes were not intended for print but to be said, sung, chanted and yelled, and their beat is as important as their sense. And that is enough of that. Christopher Logue