Mary Had a Little Lamb

William Wallace Denslow's illustrations for Mary had a little lamb, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose

Mary and lamb at school, according to Denslow

"Mary Had a Little Lamb" is a nursery rhyme of 19th-century American origin.

Original text

Mary had a little lamb,

Its fleece was white as snow;
And everywhere that Mary went,
The lamb was sure to go.

He followed her to school one day;
That was against the rule;
It made the children laugh and play;
To see a lamb at school.

And so the teacher turned it out,
But still it lingered near,
And waited patiently about
Till Mary did appear.

"Why does the lamb love Mary so?"
The eager children cry;
"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know,"
The teacher did reply.

Background

The Redstone School, now in Sudbury, Massachusetts, is believed to be the schoolhouse mentioned in the nursery rhyme.

The nursery rhyme was first published as an original poem by Sarah Josepha Hale on May 24, 1830, and was inspired by an actual incident.

As a girl, Mary Sawyer (later Mrs. Mary Tyler) kept a pet lamb, which she took to school one day at the suggestion of her brother. A commotion naturally ensued. Mary recalled:

Inside the schoolhouse.

"Visiting school that morning was a young man by the name of John Roulstone, a nephew of the Reverend Lemuel Capen, who was then settled in Sterling. It was the custom then for students to prepare for college with ministers, and for this purpose Mr. Roulstone was studying with his uncle. The young man was very much pleased with the incident of the lamb; and the next day he rode across the fields on horseback to the little old schoolhouse and handed me a slip of paper which had written upon it the three original stanzas of the poem..."

There are two competing theories on the origin of this poem. One holds that Roulstone wrote the first four lines and that the final twelve lines, more moralistic and much less childlike than the first, were composed by Sarah Josepha Hale; the other is that Hale was responsible for the entire poem.

Mary Sawyer's house, located in Sterling, Massachusetts, was destroyed by fire on August 12, 2007. A statue representing Mary's Little Lamb stands in the town center. The Redstone School, which was built in 1798, was purchased by Henry Ford and relocated to Sudbury, Massachusetts. It now sits on the grounds of Longfellow's Wayside Inn.

Song

In the 1830s, Lowell Mason set the nursery rhyme to a melody written by Mozart, adding repetition in the verses:

Mary had a little lamb,

little lamb, little lamb,
Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went,
Mary went, Mary went,
and everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.

It followed her to school one day
school one day, school one day,
It followed her to school one day, which was against the rules.
It made the children laugh and play,
laugh and play, laugh and play,
it made the children laugh and play to see a lamb at school.

And so the teacher turned it out,
turned it out, turned it out,
And so the teacher turned it out, but still it lingered near,
And waited patiently about,
patiently about, patiently about,
And waited patiently about till Mary did appear.

"Why does the lamb love Mary so?"
Love Mary so? Love Mary so?
"Why does the lamb love Mary so," the eager children cry.
"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know."
The lamb, you know, the lamb, you know,
"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know," the teacher did reply.

Other versions/uses

• Thomas Edison recited the first stanza of this poem to test his invention of the phonograph in 1877, making this the first audio recording to be successfully made and played back. In 1923, Edison's friend Henry Ford moved a building to the grounds of the Wayside Inn from Sterling, Massachusetts, which he believed was the original schoolhouse mentioned in this poem.
• Paul McCartney and Wings released a version of the song, with a new melody by McCartney, as a single in 1972.
• British Glam-rock band Slade used a reference to this rhyme on their song "Did yer mama ever tell ya".
• The nu-metal band, Korn, used this rhyme in their song "Shoots and Ladders" which talks about the supposed sinister meaning behind nursery rhymes.
• Blues artist Buddy Guy combined it with elements from other nursery school rhymes. This version of the song was later covered by fellow bluesman Stevie Ray Vaughan.
• The alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkins included a variation of this nursery rhyme in their song X.Y.U. from their album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, with the lines "Mary had a little lamb/Her face was white as snow/And everywhere that Mary went/I was sure to go/Now Mary's got a problem/And Mary's not a stupid girl/Mary's got some deep shit/Mary does not forget..."
• Mark Alburger's "Mary Variations" (1985) transform the tune into a Chinese pentatonic scale, an Indian raga, the Dies Irae, a medieval isorhythm, "Sumer Is Icumen In", and the music of Claudio Monteverdi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Scott Joplin, Igor Stravinsky, 12-bar blues, Sergei Prokofiev, Aaron Copland, Duke Ellington, Olivier Messiaen, John Cage, Terry Riley, Sting, and John Barry.
• The house-rap group SNAP recorded in the 1990s a song called "Mary Had a Little Boy".
• In late 2006, rock group Evanescence played with the nursery rhyme in their song "Lose Control", with the lyrics "Mary had a lamb/His eyes black as coal/If we play very quiet, my lamb/Mary never has to know".
• In recent science fiction, the rhyme has been used as an archetypal mantra against telepathy, featured in Babylon 5 and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Focusing on the rhyme helps shield one's thoughts from intrusion. Also, a modified version was used as a passphrase in Racing Mars, an episode of Babylon 5: "Lyta had a little Vorlon/her skin was pale as snow./Everywhere that Lyta went/the Vorlon was sure to go."
• In the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Dawn" first aired in 2003, Commander Tucker used the poem to distract an enemy alien,
• Also crude versions have been created in light of current affairs such as: "Mary had a little lamb, And his name was Ralph, Now he's burning in the field, 'cos of foot and mouth."
• In 2002 Jordan Rudess (known of Dream Theater), made a version of Mary had a little Lamb under the name Lamb Chops. In this version no lyrics are included. the part is completely played on keyboards.
• Various jokes have been made referring to "having" (i.e., eating) a little lamb as part of a meal; for Example, "Mary ate a little lamb.", and "Mary had a little lamb, bell peppers and tomatoes skewered with an onion sliced and broccoli with potatoes" .
• Also, "Mary had a little lamb/She also had a bear/I've often seen her little lamb/But I've never seen her bare!"
• The Histeria! episode "Writers of the Purple Prose" featured a poem titled Mary Had a Little Lamb 2000, in which Mary (played by Susanna Susquahanna) has her lamb cloned, lampooning the controversy of Dolly the Sheep.
• The Barmy Army, devoted fans of the English cricket team, often mock Australian cricketers and cricket fans by singing the words of the Australian national anthem to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb", and vice-versa.
• Another version concerns Mary's yellow canary.
• In the film Horse Feathers, Chico Marx plays a lively piano number called "Collegiate", which he interlaces with riffs from "Dixie" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb".
• A popular version among the Lisp community says "Mary had a little lambda/Its syntax white as snow/And every program Mary wrote/She wrote in Lisp, you know"
• Art Paul Schlosser recorded two versions in parody style one of which has these lyrics:

Mary had a little lamb

Little lamb
Little lamb
Mary had a little lamb and some olives on the side

Mary had some pork and beans
Pork and beans
Pork and beans
Mary had some pork and beans and a cheeseburger to go

& the Other called Mary had a Big Lamb with lyrics like this:

Mary had a big lamb

A big lamb, a big lamb
Mary had a little lamb
It was 60 feet tall

And everywhere that Mary went,
Mary went, Mary went,
Everywhere that Mary went
People said look out it might fall

It followed her to school one day
School one day, school one day
It followed her to school one day
It was against the rules.

It made the kids laugh and play,
Laugh and play, laugh and play,
It made the kids laugh and play
To see the gigantic lamb smash the school

Both of which are availible on Apple iTunes

Media

• An animation video on "Mary Had a Little Lamb"