Lyr Req: Twinkle twinkle little star

Subject: Lyr Req: Twinkle twinkle little star
From: GUEST,Eliza (guest)
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 06:12 PM

Has anyone seen the recent Nissan ad? I always thought it was "How I wonder WHAT you are" and not "... WHERE you are". I feel that traditional nursery rhymes ought not to be tampered with! (Or is this merely a different version and equally valid?)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twinkle twinkle little star
From: Snuffy
Date: 06 Oct 10 - 02:44 AM

Ann & Jane Taylor wrote "How I wonder WHAT you are!".

But as they published it in 1806 it is well out of copyright by now, and anyone is free to muck about with it. :-(

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twinkle twinkle little star
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 06 Oct 10 - 02:53 AM

Spike Milligan did,

Twinkle twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.

Twinkle twinkle little star,
Now I know just what you are,
A lump of rusting rocket case,
A rubbish tip in outer space.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twinkle twinkle little star
From: GUEST,Eliza (guest)
Date: 06 Oct 10 - 04:57 AM

I must say I laughed at the Spike Milligan version Dave H! Does anyone know of other funny parodies of nursery rhymes? I seem to remember a fracas a while ago about "Baa baa black sheep" being racist!!! (I didn't realise sheep were so sensitive as to their racial characteristics) I also didn't realise how long ago Twinkle twinkle was written, 1806!. Thank you Snuffy.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twinkle twinkle little star
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 06 Oct 10 - 05:51 AM

My Grandad always used to say "Up above the world so high, like a black pudding in a pie"

Funny lot my family...

:D (eG)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twinkle twinkle little star
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 06 Oct 10 - 06:05 AM

"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat" is a parody recited by the Mad Hatter in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). 'The Bat' was apparently the nickname of Professor Bartholomew Price, one of the Dons at Oxford, a former teacher of Lewis Carroll and well known to Alice Liddell's family

Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
How I wonder what you're at!
Up above the world you fly,
Like a tea tray in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
How I wonder what you're at!

The other poems include parodies of what must have been well-known verses at the time; How Doth the Little Crocodile; The Mouse's Tale; You Are Old, Father William; 'Tis the Voice of the Lobster; Jabberwocky; The Walrus and the Carpenter; Haddocks' Eyes; They told me you had been to her..."; The Mock Turtle's Song; The Hunting of the Snark.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twinkle twinkle little star
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 06 Oct 10 - 11:42 AM

Eliza, I agree with you. Changing 'what' to 'where' weakens the song.

It is amazing to think how much our understanding of the stars has changed since this little song was written. A person living in 1806 looked at the stars and had no idea how far way they were, what they were made of, and what made them shine.

Atoms, protons, neutrons, fission, fusion, electromagnetic radiation, and e = mc squared were all years in the future.

(Does anybody know how to type the 2 up high to say c squared?)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twinkle twinkle little star
From: GUEST,Melissa
Date: 06 Oct 10 - 01:08 PM

I learned 'what' and the 'where' version always seemed odd to me. The star is clearly 'up above the world so high'


-----
The English lyrics were first published as a poem with the title "The Star" by sisters Ann and Jane Taylor (1793–1824) in Rhymes for the Nursery in London in 1806.[2] The poem was probably written by Jane.[3] There are five stanzas. The repetition of the first two lines at the end of each verse is not in the original, but is needed to fit the usual melody. Below is the whole text with only the first phrase with the repetition of the first two lines added:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky!

Repeat:
*Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!*

When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
(*repeat)

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.
(*repeat)

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.
(*repeat)

As your bright and tiny spark,
Lights the traveller in the dark,—
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
(*repeat)[2][3][4]

according to wikipedia

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twinkle twinkle little star
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 06 Oct 10 - 01:30 PM

Thanks for the additional verses, Melissa.

Again this little song brings home how much the world has changed. We have maps, GPS, the Internet and road signs to help us find our way. A traveller in 1806 might have nothing but the sun and stars to guide him when travelling in a remote area.

By the way, I once had a conversation with a college student who laughingly told how she and her friends once drove 200 miles south on a trip when they should have been going north. I asked her why they didn't notice that the sun was on the wrong side of them, and she said, "Oh, we don't anything about things like that!"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twinkle twinkle little star
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Oct 10 - 01:47 PM

I was born under a wandering star-
'How I wonder where you are' is legitimate for Lee Marvin et al.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twinkle twinkle little star
From: mayomick
Date: 06 Oct 10 - 06:16 PM

It always reminds me of Blake's poem The Tyger .

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twinkle twinkle little star
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 07 Oct 10 - 12:33 AM

leeneia, if you type E = m c^2 many people will know to interpret the c^2 as c-to-the-second-power.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twinkle twinkle little star
From: Snuffy
Date: 07 Oct 10 - 03:54 PM

Just use the html tag <sup> (superscript) for a letter above the line - e=mc².

And <sub> (subscript)for one below - H₂O,

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twinkle twinkle little star
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 07 Oct 10 - 04:08 PM

For the astronomically minded, there's George Gamow's take on Quasars:

Twinkle, twinkle, quasi-star
Biggest puzzle from afar
How unlike the other ones
Brighter than a billion suns
Twinkle, twinkle, quasi-star
How I wonder what you are.