POLLY PUT THE KETTLE ON
Pa glanced at Ma, busy at the stove, while Mary
and Laura sat listening, and the fiddle slipped
into frolicking up and down with his voice... --
On the Banks of Plum Creek, Chapter 41,
"Christmas Eve"
The tune to "Polly Put the Kettle On" had been known for over a hundred years at the time of the "Little House"® books as "Jenny's Bawbee." It was transferred into a Scots tune several years after becoming popular as a tune for the piano-forte.
In the existing manuscript for On the Banks of Plum Creek, Laura Ingalls Wilder has Pa sing two verses of "Polly Put the Kettle On" with their traditional lyrics given below - using the names "Polly" and "Sukey" - not Mary and Laura. It is implied that Mary understood that she was to act the part of "Polly," because after the first verse, Laura asks, "But what shall I do, Pa?" (manuscript, Chapter 16, "The Days Pass By"). "Polly" was a common nickname for "Mary," and "Sukey" was a common nickname for "Susan."
An interesting link between "Polly Put the Kettle On" and other parts of the "Little House"® legacy is found in Charles Dickens' Barnaby Rudge, published in 1841. The book was popular in the United States in the early 1870s; a calico fabric and ladies' style of dress were patterned after a main character's style of "cherry red dress" in the story, Dolly Varden. Laura Ingalls Wilder used this nickname when referring to two different cousins in the "Little House"® books: Peter and Eliza Ingalls' baby in Little House in the Big Woods, and for the name of a child of Ruby and Joseph Card in By the Shores of Silver Lake. The historical Card family, however, only had one child, a son...
In Barnaby Rudge, Grip - the raven - cries, "Polly put the kettle on; we'll all have tea! Hurrah! Hurrah!" when excited. In the 1870s, this was a much repeated catchphrase.
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POLLY PUT THE KETTLE ON
1. Polly put the kettle on, Polly put the kettle on, Polly put the kettle on, We'll all have tea.
2. Sukey take it off again, Sukey take it off again, Sukey take it off again, They've all gone away.
JENNY'S BAWBEE
An' a' that e'er my Jenny had, My Jenny had, my Jenny had, An' a' that e'er my Jenny had, Was ae bawbee.
[Note: a bawbee was a half-penny coin.] |
POLLY PUT THE KETTLE ON (variation from On the Banks of Plum Creek)
Mary put the dishes on, The dishes on, the dishes on, Mary put the dishes on, We'll all take tea!
Laura take them off again, Off again, off again, Laura clear the table when We've all gone away!
Use the navigation bar above to listen to "Polly Put the Kettle On." If you do not see the midi player above, click HERE to listen.
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