Why are English nursery rhymes so morbid?

Question

For example:

Rock a bye baby....(the cradle falls)
3 Blind Mice (they chop off their tales)
Ring Around the Rosey (about the black plague)
Humpty Dumpty (he cracks himself open)
Little Miss Muffet (spiders scares her away)
Old Mother Hubbard (her dog starves)
Hey Diddle Diddle (were they on acid?)
The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe (she beat all of her kids and sent them to bed without supper)
Jack and Jill (Jack breaks his "crown")

Did I forget any?

Why are they all so morbid?

Answer 1

I agree, and you realize this even more when your child starts asking questions about them. There are more positive ones out there, however!

Answer 2

Because they were stories written in code to inform ppl of what was going on with the government and royalty etc..but they are such cute stories too :) and kids don't analyse them like adults do. I like them even if they do seem a bit morbid..but then I love to read my children Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes..must be my English mother's genes at work..lol.

Answer 3

yeah it ought to. in reality maximum have a negative connotation to them. Jack and Jill is rather a lot like a Romeo and Juliette tale (Jack and Jill are in love and then some thing receives contained in the way and then Jack dies and Jill follows purely as Romeo dies and then Juliette follows). Then rock-a-bye infant is about a infant falling from huge heights. Alouette is about a chicken getting that is feathers all plucked off.Humpty Dumpty is about someone committing suicide with the aid of flinging themselves off a wall/ progression. maximum have a really twisted which ability. that one variety of follows that in spite of the undeniable fact that that is extra blunt about it and that is not any longer coated up with the aid of any characters or some thing so it makes it extra actual. desire this helps.

Answer 4

It is good to scare them in this way, you let them live out their horrors in a fantasy way, instead of it creeping into their social consciousness. They are able to explore their fears in a safe way through the fairy tales and nursery rhymes. They then deal with those fears and learn how to deal with future fears and anxieties, but without actually experiencing harmful fear.

Answer 5

Because the English don't molly coddle thier youngsters the way we do on this side of the pond.

Which does not mean that they are always right, I mean just look at them, you know that they have been practicing inbreading for centuries!

Answer 6

because they told truths in a cute way... better way for children to learn the facts of life. my P.E. teacher was singing the thre blind mice and when I sang the part about chopping off the tails, she freaked out... it was funny

Answer 7

I never really thought of them like that. I think they are suppose to just be fun. I won't stop my daughter from learning them.