Saturday Songs: Twinkle Twinkle

I have been wanting to make a meme for the longest time but couldn't come up with an idea. A list of 10, 15s or 20s etc did not appeal to me. Incidently, it was a conversation with my dad about how negative some nursery rhymes are and how they are not all meant to be just rhymes but have other messages ( I know, a rather strange conversation) that set me along this path of discovering the truth about the most popular rhymes around. In my search I realised there really is so much more to the rhymes we have been singing since our childhood. 

Starting on a positive note, (some to come can be real deppressing and even though we parents learn the truth we better not share that with the kids and ruin their fun) today I shall write about the most popular one, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. What made me write about this rhyme, moreover, was that when I was very young, I had a nursery rhyme casette gifted by a relative from outside India and I distinctly remembered the rhyme having 2 stanzas instead of the popular single stanza that we all always hear and may have learnt. My initial thought was to share the second one as well with all of you but with a little research I learnt that orignally "The Star" has the following FIVE stanzas.

 

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.

Then the traveller in the dark,

Thanks you for your tiny spark,

He could not see which way to go,

If you did not twinkle so.

In the dark blue sky you keep,

And often through my curtains peep,

For you never shut your eye,

Till the sun is in the sky.

As your bright and tiny spark,

Lights the traveller in the dark,—

Though I know not what you are,

Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

 

Some Wiki facts about the rhyme are that its an early 19th century couplet poem called "The Star" by Jane Taylor. It is also known to share the same tune as tha Alphabet song and Ba Ba Black Sheep. Some say that this was never intended to be a nursery rhyme but rather a lullaby. (Not so sure about that one).