Hickory Dickory Dock
Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox song
"Hickory Dickory Dock" or "Hickety Dickety Dock" is a popular English-language nursery rhyme. The Roud Folk Song Index number is 6489.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Lyrics and music
The most common modern version is:
<poem>
Hickory dickory dock. The mouse ran up the clock. The clock struck one, The mouse ran down, Hickory dickory dock.
<ref name=Opie1997>Template:Cite book</ref></poem>
Other variants include "down the mouse ran"<ref>The American Mercury, Volume 77, p. 105</ref> or "down the mouse run"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> or "and down he ran" or "and down he run" in place of "the mouse ran down". Other variants have non-sequential numbers, for example starting with "The clock struck ten, The mouse ran down" instead of the traditional "one".Template:Fact
Score
<score sound="1"> \new Staff << \clef treble \key d \major {
\time 6/8 \partial 2.
\relative fis' {
fis8 g a a b cis | d4.~ d4 a8 | fis8 g a a b cis | d4.~ d4 \bar"" \break
a8 | d4 d8 cis4 cis8 | b4 b8 a4. | a8 b a g fis e | d4.~ d4. \bar"" \break
}
}
%\new Lyrics \lyricmode {Hickory Dickory Dock, Pixels looked up at the clock, The clock struck five, he ran away, Hickory Dickory Dock} %} >> \layout { indent = #0 } \midi { \tempo 4. = 63 } </score>
Origins and meaning
The earliest recorded version of the rhyme is in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published in London in May 1744, which uses the opening line: 'Hickere, Dickere Dock'.<ref name=Opie1997/> The next recorded version in Mother Goose's Melody (c. 1765), uses 'Dickery, Dickery Dock'.<ref name=Opie1997/>
The rhyme is thought by some commentators to have originated as a counting-out rhyme.<ref name=Opie1997/> Westmorland shepherds in the nineteenth century used the numbers Hevera (8), Devera (9) and Dick (10) which are from the language Cumbric.<ref name=Opie1997/>
The rhyme is thought to have been based on the astronomical clock at Exeter Cathedral. The clock has a small hole in the door below the face for the resident cat to hunt mice.<ref>Cathedral Cats. Richard Surman. HarperCollins. 2004</ref>
See also
References
Template:Wikisource Template:Reflist