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31 Mar 05 - 10:53 AM (#1447937) Subject: Origins: Lullaby--Mumma see the tiny ducks From: GUEST,wealhtheow I'm looking for the origins for this family lullaby--came down from my great-grandmother from Ireland, but I've never heard of anyone else using this. Tune is same as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." Here are the lyrics I know: Mumma see the tiny ducks On the shore the old hen clucks Mumma tell me what's the matter Why she's making such a clatter She is running to and fro While the ducklings paddling go Mumma she can't understand Why they're swimming from the land She's afraid the water'll hurt them Into chicks she can't convert them. Anyone ever heard of this before, or did my great-grandmother just make it up? |
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31 Mar 05 - 11:15 AM (#1447953) Subject: RE: Origins: Lullaby--Mumma see the tiny ducks From: GUEST,MMario I find no mention of it on the internet - which is unusual for a children's rhyme. |
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31 Mar 05 - 11:40 AM (#1447982) Subject: RE: Origins: Lullaby--Mumma see the tiny ducks From: black walnut I tried singing it and I'm missing two lines. How does it fit with Twinkle? Is there a repeat somewhere? ~b.w. |
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31 Mar 05 - 11:42 AM (#1447983) Subject: RE: Origins: Lullaby--Mumma see the tiny ducks From: GUEST,wealhtheow There may very well be a missing line in there. I didn't know the last four lines existed until my grandmother starting singing them to my niece a few months ago. Those lines should be sung starting with the "Up above the sky so high..." part, so you're effectively skipping the first two lines of the melody. |
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31 Mar 05 - 12:11 PM (#1448003) Subject: RE: Origins: Lullaby--Mumma see the tiny ducks From: GUEST,MMario it makes sense either to just skip the first two lines when your reach "Momma she can't understand" OR to repeat the first two lines. (which is what I would probably choose) |
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31 Mar 05 - 02:33 PM (#1448163) Subject: RE: Origins: Lullaby--Mumma see the tiny ducks From: Q (Frank Staplin) Wonderful little story. The tune "twinkle..." needs tweaking to fit; no reason to straight-jacket it, or the repeat could be used. I seem to remember a little story or rhyme in a children's book that I had in the 1930s (some of these books were old then, my father's, retrieved from the basement). But the idea of a chicken hatching duck eggs and her confusion when the ducklings took to water may have been thought of independently more than once. Agriculture Canada (poultry pub. 1524 on managing a small flock) has a paragraph on using chickens to hatch waterfowl eggs. It cautions one to wet the eggs once a day with lukewarm water. |