✦ A Nursery Rhyme ✦
Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are! Perhaps the most famous lullaby in the English language.
Read aloud by Storyland Classics ✦ 44 seconds ✦ Watch on YouTube
✦ The Rhyme ✦
by Jane Taylor, first published as “The Star” in Rhymes for the Nursery (1806). Public domain.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are! Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky.
When the blazing sun is gone, When he nothing shines upon, Then you show your little light, Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
✦ About the Rhyme ✦
“Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” was written by the English poet Jane Taylor and published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a book she wrote with her sister Ann. Its original title was “The Star,” and it has five verses.
The tune is an old French melody, “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman,” which Mozart used for a set of piano variations. The same tune is used for the alphabet song and “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep.”
✦ Talk About It ✦