How does your garden grow?

Question

You do not need to be Mary to answer this.....;) Humorous answer are expected!

However, If someone can explain the rhyme to me, you may get best answer! I was curious..Mary, Mary, quite contrary......I thought contrary meant opposite or unfavorable,So what does it mean in the ryhme??

Answer 1

From my favourite source; Wikipedia:

"Like many nursery rhymes, it has acquired spurious historical explanations. One is that it refers to Mary I of Scotland, with "how does your garden grow" referring to her reign, "silver bells" referring to (Catholic) cathedral bells, "cockleshells" insinuating that her husband cheated on her, and "pretty maids all in a row" referring to her babies that died. However, Mary Queen of Scots was accounted a great beauty. She was also not known for killing "rows and rows" of people, although her husband, Darnley, was mixed up in a murder, and her lover and third husband, Lord Bothwell, was thought to have arranged the murder of Darnley.

Another is that it refers to Mary I of England and her unpopular attempts to bring Roman Catholicism back to England, identifying the "cockle shells," for example, with the symbol of pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James in Spain (Santiago de Compostela) and the "pretty maids all in a row" with nuns.

Still, some argue that no proof has been found that the rhyme was known before the eighteenth century, while Mary I of England and Mary I of Scotland were contemporaries in the sixteenth century. Some historians suggest that the song was invented by Protestants and Anglicans to mock the reign of either Mary at the time or long afterwards."

Cheers!

Answer 2

Mary mary quite contrary
how does your garden grow
with silver bells and cockle shells
and 3 maids all in a row
The maids do it.

Answer 3

Mary is probably a little brat with her silver bells and her cockleshells all in a row....little contrary snippet! lol

Answer 4

Does her garden grow?
I'd have to say no.
The author was trying to be mean
By saying her thumb is not green.
I'm not trying to sound stupid.
But you've hit the mark cupid.

Answer 5

mary is insane

Answer 6

"with silver bells and cockel shells all in a row."