Auditing a Nursery Rhyme

We have all learnt many nursery rhymes in our childhood, when those small poems would transport us to a whole new world where there would be an old Mc’Donald with his farm and many animals, A hot cross bun seller, A mouse climbing up a clock or a little Mary with her lamb.

I was always fascinated to peek through these small poems which would open up something new every time. Now IBMC #08 called ‘The Nursery Rhyme Challenge‘made me revisit all those nursery rhymes again, the way I used to see them and many queries my inquisitive mind used to have. This challenge needs me to pick up one such rhyme and make a new interpretation of it.

I went a lot of them all over again, some by memory and some through google.The rhyme which brought back many memories was ‘Humpty-Dumpty’and I knew this was the one I was doing a post about!

And because we are now going to be transported into nursery all over again, don’t forget to be a bit crazy, because nursery is nothing but fun! 😜

Here’s how it goes:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,

All the kings horses and all the kings men,

Couldn’t put Humpty together again!

What I used to think back in nursery:

1. Why can’t so many strong people pick up a fallen person?

Weird, right? How would the poor man keep lying over there!

2. Why does he fall in the first place?

I was reasoned that he was fat. And therefore, I should keep a watch on my weight as well..see what happens otherwise? 😯

I remember mulling over this poem, sitting alone in the late afternoons when mum used to sleep and I used to have a whole house to explore on my own! Well, I expressly remember not quite agreeing with this logic…but then the teacher couldn’t be wrong.. Could she?

3. What was so funny in a person falling?

The class used to burst out laughing at him, when the poor guy could be hurt!

4. Why would he sit on a wall?

Now I think, how did this ‘fat’ man climb up in the first place! See? there are serious flaws. 😜 

5. Most importantly, does a normal man look like that? No hair, a strange oval face and the like?

He looks more like an egg than a supposed fat man 😜
Well, my old interpretation(taught to me) and the one question which used to bug me has given a new context to this rhyme as follows:

All for an Egg

Humpty Dumpty was a cute little egg, who was made to sit on the brim of a frying pan.( Quite forcefully, in the sense he was picked up and kept there). And soon, he fell down(or maybe ‘pushed’ down after hitting him hard on the brim) and broke his crown (or shell) and all the kings horses and all the kings men, couldn’t put Humpty together again!  Why? The poached egg was too yummy to resist! (Or maybe because an egg once broken remains broken)

I hope you enjoyed the humorous minute audit I did of this lovely rhyme. Thus, the task is complete and here I present the completion logo:

No more just a rhyme!

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