✦ A Nursery Rhyme ✦
A cat with a fiddle, a cow over the moon, and a dish that runs off with the spoon. Watch the read-aloud and say the rhyme together.
Read aloud by Storyland Classics ✦ 25 seconds ✦ Watch on YouTube
✦ The Rhyme ✦
Traditional English nursery rhyme, first printed around 1765. Public domain.
Hey diddle diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon; The little dog laughed To see such sport, And the dish ran away with the spoon.
✦ About the Rhyme ✦
“Hey Diddle Diddle” first appeared in print in England around 1765, in one of the earliest collections of Mother Goose rhymes, and it was probably sung long before that. Nobody knows who wrote it.
Over the years people have suggested all sorts of hidden meanings, from star constellations to royal gossip, but none has ever been proven. Most likely it is exactly what it sounds like: a happy jumble of impossible pictures, made to be fun to say and easy for small children to remember.
✦ Talk About It ✦