Such a fun poem and another reminder of my long-ago childhood. I enjoyed hearing about the two St. Ives -- totally news to me and one of those things I never thought about. Thank you!
We spent time in the Cambridgeshire St. Ives (pictured above) on a boat trip we took in September of 2002, when our third child was 7 weeks old. We spent a week puttering from Ely to a place called Hemingford Grey (where the 11th-century house featured in L.M. Boston's Green Knowe series of children's books is) and back --- with an extra day in St. Ives, moored in a little inlet behind a hotel, with that view of the bridge, because we liked it so much. There was an interesting museum of the fens there, as well as the famous market, which looked to us . . . basically like every other market we had ever seen, but it is famous. I think at the time I wondered whether it was THE St. Ives of the rhyme or not. Never been to the Cornish St. Ives!
Until today I thought that "pilchard" was a nonsense word whose only occurrence was in the phrase "semolina pilchard climbing up the Eiffel Tower" in the Beatles' song "I Am the Walrus." Today I learn that it is a fish similar to herring. Now I worder if the Fab Four were referring to fried fish in France, a tongue-twister if ever there was one.
"Semolina Pilchard" is a great, funny name, which is how I've always heard that line --- a *person* named "Semolina Pilchard" climbing up the Eiffel Tower, because that's not the most weird thing that happens in that song.
It would be interesting to consider what food names would make good comic fictional character names --- in the North Carolina cartoonist Doug Marlette's comic strip "Kudzu," there was a girl named Vidalia, for instance, after the sweet onion.
I was tickled to see this one today. It immediately became an earworm as soon as I saw the title of the post.
When I taught middle school math I would use this as an introduction to problem solving and the step of reading the problem carefully to understand the question. It always surprised me how few of my students knew the poem.
This is one of my favorite Mother Goose rhymes and it has had permanent residence in my head for as long as I can remember. I recite this and others frequently and at random. They’re just so fun to say. As a child I delighted in the puzzle but also in the rhythm and rhyme.
Spellings weren't standardized at that stage, so I'm not sure that the "sac" spelling in the 1730 version necessarily tells us anything beyond that --- but I'm open to correction here! Clearly there is much in this world that I don't know.
Still, you think about the fact that Jane Austen was writing "sopha" in the early 19th century . . . so much about the language was up in the air generally until at least the Victorian era that it really didn't occur to me to think more of the 1730 spelling than that it was 1730 and people were basically spitballing how to render that set of sounds in print.
Of course I thought of how pig markets would secretly swap swine for cats .. only to be discovered when back at the farm .. hence “letting the cat out of the bag”
I'll have to go upstairs and find it, but Richard Scarry's Best Mother Goose Ever is one of the many editions of Mother Goose rhymes we own --- and I keep almost picturing the illustration for this particular one. In my mind, the man and his wives are cats, carrying these sacks of cats, which is funny. But possibly they're pigs, which would be an even better joke. I can't find this particular picture online, so clearly I'm going to have to go up and find the book, or I won't be able to sleep tonight.
Such a fun poem and another reminder of my long-ago childhood. I enjoyed hearing about the two St. Ives -- totally news to me and one of those things I never thought about. Thank you!
We spent time in the Cambridgeshire St. Ives (pictured above) on a boat trip we took in September of 2002, when our third child was 7 weeks old. We spent a week puttering from Ely to a place called Hemingford Grey (where the 11th-century house featured in L.M. Boston's Green Knowe series of children's books is) and back --- with an extra day in St. Ives, moored in a little inlet behind a hotel, with that view of the bridge, because we liked it so much. There was an interesting museum of the fens there, as well as the famous market, which looked to us . . . basically like every other market we had ever seen, but it is famous. I think at the time I wondered whether it was THE St. Ives of the rhyme or not. Never been to the Cornish St. Ives!
What fun! Thank you for sharing this story; I love hearing such snippets of people's lives and "seeing" places they have been.
Until today I thought that "pilchard" was a nonsense word whose only occurrence was in the phrase "semolina pilchard climbing up the Eiffel Tower" in the Beatles' song "I Am the Walrus." Today I learn that it is a fish similar to herring. Now I worder if the Fab Four were referring to fried fish in France, a tongue-twister if ever there was one.
I learned about “pilchard” when my kids watched Bob the Builder. I was also a Beatles-pilchard-guy.
"Semolina Pilchard" is a great, funny name, which is how I've always heard that line --- a *person* named "Semolina Pilchard" climbing up the Eiffel Tower, because that's not the most weird thing that happens in that song.
It would be interesting to consider what food names would make good comic fictional character names --- in the North Carolina cartoonist Doug Marlette's comic strip "Kudzu," there was a girl named Vidalia, for instance, after the sweet onion.
I was tickled to see this one today. It immediately became an earworm as soon as I saw the title of the post.
When I taught middle school math I would use this as an introduction to problem solving and the step of reading the problem carefully to understand the question. It always surprised me how few of my students knew the poem.
This is one of my favorite Mother Goose rhymes and it has had permanent residence in my head for as long as I can remember. I recite this and others frequently and at random. They’re just so fun to say. As a child I delighted in the puzzle but also in the rhythm and rhyme.
The spelling of sacks changes. Do the different spellings provide a hint of when each version was written and maybe which St. Ives?
Spellings weren't standardized at that stage, so I'm not sure that the "sac" spelling in the 1730 version necessarily tells us anything beyond that --- but I'm open to correction here! Clearly there is much in this world that I don't know.
Still, you think about the fact that Jane Austen was writing "sopha" in the early 19th century . . . so much about the language was up in the air generally until at least the Victorian era that it really didn't occur to me to think more of the 1730 spelling than that it was 1730 and people were basically spitballing how to render that set of sounds in print.
And "sac" is just French for "bag," which again I don't think would have been uncommon either as a word in the vocabulary or as a spelling . . .
Wasn't it just one going to St Ives?
Yes. Everybody else coming from St. Ives.
As I recall, Walt Kelly's Pogo comic strip had a great deal of fun with the swamp critters trying to do the math to solve the riddle.
I am terrible at math (and have been waiting for someone to catch me in an error here) and had to write it all out like
Wives: 7
Sacks: 7x7=49
Cats: 49x7=343
and then remember to add the number of cats in each sack to the number of kittens.
So I have all these figures on a page in a notebook on my desk, and it looks as though I'm trying to discover a new theory of relativity.
I haven't thought about Pogo in years! I'll have to try to track those ones down.
I haven't looked at Pogo for many years, but I expect he's worth revisiting. "Deck us all with Boston Charlie" turns up in my head every Christmas.
Of course I thought of how pig markets would secretly swap swine for cats .. only to be discovered when back at the farm .. hence “letting the cat out of the bag”
Oh, I didn't know that! So a HOODWINKED polygamist instead of a cat hoarder.
Lol. Yes exactly.
Now it's a sad story. (but then, so many of them are, actually)
I'll have to go upstairs and find it, but Richard Scarry's Best Mother Goose Ever is one of the many editions of Mother Goose rhymes we own --- and I keep almost picturing the illustration for this particular one. In my mind, the man and his wives are cats, carrying these sacks of cats, which is funny. But possibly they're pigs, which would be an even better joke. I can't find this particular picture online, so clearly I'm going to have to go up and find the book, or I won't be able to sleep tonight.
Never mind. They seem to be tigers.