Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary
I saw an interesting poem in someone's signiture today. After looking it up, I found the person hadn't written it, though they never said they did. Normally I find it rather pointless and overall emo to put a poem in your signiture, but I find this one rather interesting.
Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, How does your garden grow?
Solitary Sanctuary, With your pretty dreams all in a row.
Mary, Mary Ordinary, Where did all your flowers go?
Necessary Mercenary, You can't reap what you don't grow.
I made a search in Wikipedia and found this to be the original nursery rhyme.
I saw an interesting poem in someone's signiture today. After looking it up, I found the person hadn't written it, though they never said they did. Normally I find it rather pointless and overall emo to put a poem in your signiture, but I find this one rather interesting.
Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, How does your garden grow?
Solitary Sanctuary, With your pretty dreams all in a row.
Mary, Mary Ordinary, Where did all your flowers go?
Necessary Mercenary, You can't reap what you don't grow.
I made a search in Wikipedia and found this to be the original nursery rhyme.
Wikipedia
Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockleshells
And pretty maids all in a row.
Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary is an English nursery rhyme; an alternate first line is Mistress Mary, quite contrary.
Like many nursery rhymes, it has acquired spurious historical explanations. One is that it refers to Mary I of Scotland, with "how does your garden grow" referring to how she was doing controlling the country, "silver bells" referring to (Catholic) cathedral bells, "cockleshells" being an insult as that her husband cheated, and "pretty maids all in a row" referring to that all her babies had died and she burried them in rows. However, Mary Queen of Scots was accounted a great beauty. She was also not known for killing "rows and rows" of people, although her husband, Darnley, was mixed up in a murder, and her lover and third husband, Lord Bothwell, was thought to have arranged the murder of Darnley.
Another is that it refers to Mary I of England and her unpopular attempts to bring Roman Catholicism back to England, identifying the "cockle shells," for example, with the symbol of pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James in Spain (Santiago de Compostela) and the "pretty maids all in a row" with nuns.
Alternatively, capitalising on the queen's potrayal by Whig historians as 'Bloody Mary', the "silver bells and cockle shells" referred to in the nursery rhyme could be colloquialisms for instruments of torture. The 'silver bells' may refer to thumbscrews, while the 'cockleshells' are thought to have been instruments of torture which were attached to the genitals. Finally, 'maids' might be a reference to 'maidens' which were early guillotine-like devices used to sever heads.
Still, some argue that no proof has been found that the rhyme was known before the eighteenth century, while Mary I of England and Mary I of Scotland (who were contemporaries) lived in the sixteenth century.
Quoted References Listed:
"How Does Your Garden Grow?" (in Poirot's Early Cases) by Agatha Christie
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The album Monster Movie by the rock group Can
A verse in Rufus Thomas's classic blues song Walkin' The Dog.
In modified form, in the Smashing Pumpkins song "x.y.u."
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockleshells
And pretty maids all in a row.
Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary is an English nursery rhyme; an alternate first line is Mistress Mary, quite contrary.
Like many nursery rhymes, it has acquired spurious historical explanations. One is that it refers to Mary I of Scotland, with "how does your garden grow" referring to how she was doing controlling the country, "silver bells" referring to (Catholic) cathedral bells, "cockleshells" being an insult as that her husband cheated, and "pretty maids all in a row" referring to that all her babies had died and she burried them in rows. However, Mary Queen of Scots was accounted a great beauty. She was also not known for killing "rows and rows" of people, although her husband, Darnley, was mixed up in a murder, and her lover and third husband, Lord Bothwell, was thought to have arranged the murder of Darnley.
Another is that it refers to Mary I of England and her unpopular attempts to bring Roman Catholicism back to England, identifying the "cockle shells," for example, with the symbol of pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James in Spain (Santiago de Compostela) and the "pretty maids all in a row" with nuns.
Alternatively, capitalising on the queen's potrayal by Whig historians as 'Bloody Mary', the "silver bells and cockle shells" referred to in the nursery rhyme could be colloquialisms for instruments of torture. The 'silver bells' may refer to thumbscrews, while the 'cockleshells' are thought to have been instruments of torture which were attached to the genitals. Finally, 'maids' might be a reference to 'maidens' which were early guillotine-like devices used to sever heads.
Still, some argue that no proof has been found that the rhyme was known before the eighteenth century, while Mary I of England and Mary I of Scotland (who were contemporaries) lived in the sixteenth century.
Quoted References Listed:
"How Does Your Garden Grow?" (in Poirot's Early Cases) by Agatha Christie
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The album Monster Movie by the rock group Can
A verse in Rufus Thomas's classic blues song Walkin' The Dog.
In modified form, in the Smashing Pumpkins song "x.y.u."
I'd be interested to know where the particular version at the top came from, so if you know or have an idea, leave a comment here, in my profile, or PM me. 3nodding
