It's Raining, It's Pouring

It's Raining, It's Pouring is the first line of an English-language nursery rhyme.

Origin

It was written about the meteorologist John Dalton. On July 27th 1844 he made his last meteorological observation (presumably that it was raining) and during the night fell from his bed, hit his head and was found dead in the morning.

Oldest version

The oldest version of this rhyme reads:^{[verification needed]}

It's raining; it's pouring.

The old man is snoring.

He bumped his head and he went to bed,

And couldn't get up in the morning.

Variations

1	It's raining; it's pouring.
2	The old man is snoring.
2	The man next door is snoring.
3	He went to bed and bumped/hit his head,
	Bumped his head and he went to bed,
	He bumped his head as he went to bed,
	He bumped his head on the top of his bed,
	He went to bed with a bump on his head,
	He went to bed with a bucket on his head,
	He went to bed with a cold in his head,
	He went to bed with a hole in his head,
	He went to bed and covered his head,
	He went to bed to mend his head,
	He fell out of bed and bumped his head,
	He bumped his head on a piece of bread,
	He jumped in bed and bumped his head,
	He bumped his head and peed the bed,
4	And/But couldn't get up in the morning.
	And he couldn't get up in the morning.
	And didn't get up in the morning.
	And never got up in the morning.
	And didn't get up until/till morning.

Parody

For Shakespeare's Macbeth:

It's raining; it's pouring.

The old king's not snoring.

He got into bed and was found dead,

When they went to him in the morning.

Popular culture

A children's book of the same name, written by Kin Eagle and illustrated by Rob Gilbert, expands on this rhyme to show what happens to the old man in all sorts of weather.
The PC game Delaware St. John Volume 1: The Curse of Midnight Manor, begins with the ghost of a little girl singing this rhyme in a spooky manner while it's storming outside.
Jose Feliciano sang this as part of his release, "Listen to the Falling Rain".
This rhyme is sung by children at the end of Supertramp's song, It's Raining Again.