Jaya MiceliBesprekingen

I really loved reading this book. I've always been fascinated by childhood rhymes and the stories behind them. This is well written and down to the level, with some great jokes and quips thrown into every article for each new piece. I'd advise to anyone with even a passing fancy. It's a quick, fun, lighthearted to read write-up of as it says some pretty heavy stuff.

Mildly entertaining

This is an anthology of old nursery rhymes which purports to explain the origin of the rhymes.....many of which have political implications. Of course, there are also a huge number of variants of the rhymes that have been used or developed over the years as well. This complicated the interpretation of the rhymes. I have somewhat mixed feeling about the book. I don't think it's especially scholarly. For example, with the rhyme: "Goosey goosey gander.......
There I met an old man who wouldn't say his prayers
So I took him by the left leg and threw him down the stairs"
Roberts simply interprets this as having sexual meanings with the idea that "goose" refers to a "prostitute"....whereas other commentators draw attention to the fact that it is probably related to Catholic priests ..who if found in priest holes etc were likely to be thrown down the stairs......or to the actual case of Cardinal Beaton who would not submit to the covenanter's demands and was thrown down the stairs.
So interesting, not especially reliable or scholarly, and Roberts throws in some of his own amusing writing touches for good measure. (Some work...some don't....at least for me).
I rate it as three stars. Easy reading. But I don't think I'll keep it.

As I read this I compared each verse, and the theories of its origins (and, sometimes, subsequent applications and adaptations) to [b:The Annotated Mother Goose: With an Introduction and Notes|440528|The Annotated Mother Goose With an Introduction and Notes|William S. Baring-Gould|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387742644s/440528.jpg|429331]. By and large, they agree closely. This book is much shorter, but adds in some interesting British history (both ancient and recent) and humor (with a semi-helpful glossary).

Consider it a 'sampler' of a larger work, of which AMG is just one of many available. Roberts used clip art from Dover Publishing to aptly illustrate this. (AMG uses illustrations from anonymous woodcuts, and from Parrish, Greenaway, Caldecott, and Rackham.) Roberts' brief bibliography does not mention AMG, but then, there is actually a lot of material in this field.

The difficulty is, once you start seeing meaning you can find it anywhere, and people have been looking for a long time."

Jack may have jumped over a candlestick to prove his fitness as part of a job application process. "Before you dismiss [that] as a flight of fancy, [think of] some of the absurd management-training courses... in vogue. In fact, a book called The Pagan Way to Human Resource Management would surely be a great success."

The London Bridge that Lake Havasu was created for is not the original, the one that lasted many centuries. It is the one that John Rennie designed poorly in 1832, which was replaced by the current less attractive but more functional one in the 1970s."

I bought this because I saw a friend's post on it and it sounded interesting. Plus I'm a sucker for a good title.

Unfortunately, it doesn't really live up. And the subtitle is way off. Rather than "The Reason Behind the Rhyme," it should be "Apocryphal Stories and Historical Gossip Tangentially Related to Nursery Rhymes." But I suppose that lacks a certain . . . clichéness. (Wow. How's that for getting my snark on?)

But I sound a lot more disappointed than I actually am. I didn't have any real reason for high expectations; it's not like my friend was saying it was the book of the year or anything. And the title was, of course, stolen from a Smiths song. So I wasn't terribly let down or anything. I had hoped for him to stay a bit more focused, though. Often it seemed like he was taking every opportunity to go off on some barely related tangent. I'm not much a fan of that kind of rhetoric, so I usually found that annoying. If you are a fan of it—and plenty of people are, it's nothing to be ashamed of—then you'll probably love the book.

It did seem like he kept telling the same stories over and over, but I suspect that's due to (a) my lack of knowledge/interest concerning British royals and (2) the fact that said royals keep getting into the same kinds of scandals over and over, generation after generation.

In this book, author Chris Roberts considers English language nursery rhymes in terms of their original, historical meanings. He traces some of these rhymes to the Middle Ages, but many others to the Tudor and Stuart monarchies of the 1500s through the early 1700s. In his account, these innocent- seeming rhymes reveal “religious hatred, political subversion, and sexual innuendo.” Thus, Humpty Dumpty is said to have been a cannon placed on the wall of a Colchester church. “Georgy Porgy” allegedly refers to the unpopular and portly George IV, and “Baa Baa Black Sheep” was originally a complaint against taxes. “Sing a Song of Sixpence” might refer to Henry VIII, and his first two wives. or maybe not -- and that raises a problem.

For many of the rhymes discussed, the author presents multiple, conflicting interpretations, each of which he supports with conjecture and speculation. This practice calls into question the legitimacy and accuracy of the book.

For example, consider “Mary, Mary Quite Contrary.” One possibility is that it is a jibe at Mary, Queen of Scots -- “the pretty maids all in a row” being a reference to the rampant promiscuity at court. Alternatively, the “garden” of the rhyme may be a cemetery full of Protestant martyrs, and the “silver bells and cockle shells” instruments of torture – in which case the Mary actually may be England’s Mary Tudor (aka “Bloody Mary”). Or perhaps the “Mary” is the mother of Jesus, and the “cockle shells” were badges worn by religious pilgrims. When a single simple rhyme gives rise to so many discrepant interpretations, clearly the reader can have no confidence in any one of them. Roberts sidesteps the contradictions by proposing that the rhyme “has come to represent either Mary, depending on how it is interpreted.” What can he possibly mean by this statement? The rhyme had an origin and a history, regardless of whether we can reconstruct what they were. Most of the rhymes discussed are of this sort – ones with multiple possible interpretations which are not able to be distinguished. Thus, this book becomes an exercise in imaginative speculation, not historical reconstruction.

In an afterword, the author gives the game away: ”Heavy Words was never meant to be a particularly scholarly exercise…. there are many alternative theories for several of the rhymes featured here, but this book has gone for the most interesting and plausible… “ The most interesting!? And so: entertainment was the goal. For anything like historical accuracy, readers will have to look elsewhere.½

What a fun book! Everything I hoped it would be – entertaining, educational and a source of conversation topics at cocktail parties for months to come.

Heavy Words Lightly Thrown is a small collection of the stories and characters behind some of the world’s most popular (and sometimes obscure) nursery rhymes. With a few pages dedicated to each, the book proves a quick read while learning the true meaning of Baa Baa Blacksheep and the secret identity of Jack Sprat.

Admittedly, since it is written by a British author for a British audience, some of the more “obscure” nursery rhymes may prove more recognizable in Europe. But even for those, I found the descriptions of “Elsie Marley is Grown So Fine,” “Grand Old Duke of York” and “Turn Again, Whittington” entertaining in and of themselves, regardless of the fact I had never heard of any of them before. Highly Recommended.½

Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind the Rhyme features an enjoyably British overview of popular nursery rhymes and their possible origins. Roberts does a thorough, humorous job of bringing history to life--I mean really, he quotes Eddie Izzard's "Tea or cakes or death" line in summarizing the Church of England. The majority of the rhymes were familiar to me, a California-raised American.

I was surprised by how old many of the nursery rhymes were. "London Bridge" is thought to celebrate the alliance of Aethelred the Unready and King Olav of Norway. Olav attached his ships to the bridge and at high tide floated the structure away. However, many of the rhymes date to the period of Henry VIII and shortly thereafter when religious tensions were high and often bloody.

I have to say, I feel odd reading my son's current favorite book, Mother Goose in California since finding out that "Goosey goosey gander" is about prostitutes and the whole Jack and Jill climbing a hill is really a euphemism for sex. It's like when I was a teenager and realized that the skunk Pepe le Pew was trying to rape a cat in all of those old cartoons.

I'm definitely keeping this book in my reference collection... though I think I'll hide it from my son for the next decade. Oh, sweet innocence!

There is a long history behind the seemingly nonsensical childhood rhymes, handed down for centuries, that we pass on to our children without questioning their original message. This book is the American version of a popular English title delving into the often speculative history behind many of these rhymes. There are competing claims to the origins of most. Not surprisingly, many have tawdry elements. The history and politics behind these messages, as well as the reasons for disguising some rather radical slogans, is well covered in this book.

"The seamy and quirky stories behind favorite nursery rhymes." Also includes a glossary of "English terms." This was very interesting, even though the writing was a bit jolty...

A lot of the material here is highly speculative. Also, the nursery rhymes whose origins Roberts sets out to find end up feeling more like segues to essays on British history. In other words, I didn't like this as much as I thought I would. For straight nursery-rhyme reference material, I recommend Iona and Peter Opie's The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes.½

This was a delightfully informative and humorously written little book that fleshes out the nursery rhymes that most of us grew up with. There are several rhymes in here that I was unfamiliar with and they are most likely more popular in England than they are here. It's a fascinating history lesson that draws several connections to many more contemporary political events. Some of this I already knew, but many of the explanations for nursery ditties and nonsense poems were real eye openers for me. I've been reading this book in bits and pieces for a while, it being one I carried in my handbag and read in odd moments. It's a good book for that sort of reading, since the reader can start and stop as needed. I enjoyed it a great deal.

Enjoyed Roberts' tour through history as he explains inspiration for so many popular and less known nursery rhymes. It is interesting that the original audience for what we affectionately refer to as 'nursery rhymes' did not see them as tales for children. Peppered with allusions that Gen X readers will recognize.

First Line: It should come as no surprise that nursery rhymes are full of sex, death, and cruelty.

Chris Roberts often leads walking tours of London. Having his tour guide patter constantly besieged with questions gave him the idea for this book. Roberts' preface to the US edition talks a bit about the metamorphosis this book has taken, and he thanks Gotham Books for the idea of including a glossary for those Americans who, unlike me, don't have an in-house interpreter for Cockney rhyming slang and the like. (Fortunately I didn't have to avail myself of my interpreter while reading Heavy Words Lightly Thrown.)

Roberts took me on a journey through many of the familiar nursery rhymes of my childhood: Little Jack Horner, Old King Cole, Pop Goes the Weasel.... I knew the origins of some and was quite enlightened by others. To say that I'll never think of goosebumps the same way again would be an understatement! I quite enjoyed Roberts' humorous style and think anyone interested in literary history would as well.

When I showed up for a walking tour that was unexpectedly cancelled, but nevertheless purchased the collected One Eye Grey, Chris threw in this book as an additional apology and thanks. What a great guy! And since I've always loved learning the origins of words, phrases and stories - the stories behind the stories, as it were - this was madly appreciated.

The rhymes discussed within, and their meanings, are certainly fascinating; as many of their beginnings are lost to antiquity, it's less often a matter of digging up the one factual account than of examining numerous theories and possibilities to see which is the most plausible. Some seem fairly obvious in retrospect ("Jack and Jill is about two kids losing their virginity? Oh, right - 'broke his crown' - well, of course"), while others are much more convoluted, and have ties to or comment upon the particular vices or scandals of a given monarch some centuries in the past.

Incredibly researched, incredibly knowledgeable, and incredibly fun.

I thought that this book wasn't without interest but it wasn't written as well as it could have been. Anyone looking for a serious discussion of nursery rhymes within a clear historical context should look elsewhere. That doesn't mean that it doesn't shed some light on them; it does. But he just jumps from one rhyme to another, with no clear reason for the order, and where he doesn't have much to say on them, he uses them as an excuse to talk some vaguely related subject on which he does have something to say, which can be interesting, but not always. (And, on a small point, despite the book being rooted in British, well chiefly English, culture, there are some annoying Americanisms creeping into the text. Is the author originally American or is his editor?)

Examining the reason behind the rhymes is not always an easy task. The history of nursery rhymes is surrounded by legend, purposeful confusion, and outright misinformation. One of Roberts' greatest feats is that, while he can't always find the facts, he can generally dispel much of the misinformation. Frequently, he seems to go on long tangents about football chants, though the fact that those are as close to modern nursery rhymes as we can get makes this less annoying.
I read the American version, in which he includes a glossary of the terms he uses. Some of the terms were useful to have explained (I don't know much about British social law or regional snipes), however, some of the explanations were just silly. Also, most of the rhymes included in the book are definitely British. And finally, I wish he'd done a tad more research on the historical Mother Goose. While I'm not saying some of his interpretation wasn't correct, he ignored the fact that there was a woman who had so much to do with the Mother Goose persona, she's buried in a Boston cemetery under the name (I have not done much research into this, however-but I wish he'd at least mentioned it).

Overall, this is an entertaining read that is funny, insightful, and a great dive into British history. Since many of the rhymes come from the same time period, be prepared for a lot of repetition in his stories. Do not try to read this book if you don't know at least a bit about British history-the differences between Elizabeth and Mary, the importance of 1066, and who Lady Jane Grey was, for instance.

...What I discovered was a playful, comic romp not only focused upon the origins of rhymes like “Humpty Dumpty” and “Yankee Doodle,” but also upon common misconceptions and even modern renditions and evolutions...

~~ Continued on my website! (www.robbflynn.com) ~~½

Although an incredibly interesting topic for discussion, Heavy Words Lightly Thrown leaves something to be desired. Sometimes Mr. Roberts gives us a vivid snapshot of the time period of certain rhymes filled with all the nuance and speculation one would expect. At others, he comes across as pedantic and barely covers the rhyme in question.

Rather meandering. Not as interesting as I'd hoped. Maybe there are not as a many secrets aas you might like.

I really expected to enjoy this book more than I did. I found IT to be heavy.

I wasn't that impressed. Some of the stories were interesting (for example, the one about London Bridge), but most were full of conjecture and possible scenarios without really giving much actual information.½

a venture into poetry½