There was a Little Girl
who had a little curl,
right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good
She was very good
But when she was bad she was Horrid.
One day she went upstairs ,
when her parents, unaware,
In the kitchen were occupied with meals,
And she stood up on her head
In her little trundle bed,
And then began hooraying with her heals
Her mother heard the noise
And she thought it was the boys
A-PLaying at a combat in the attic;
But when she climbed the stair, and found Jamima there,
She took and did spak her most
empathetic
This is a poem that most Americans are not familiar with. Have you ever heard of the nursery rhyme There Was a Little Girl? Its origins may surprise you. Most nursery rhymes have origins, but this one is a MUST TELL.
WHERE DO PEOPLE COME IN CONTACT WITH THIS RHYME?
They would come in contact with this rhyme in a preschool education setting. Or even a nursery rhyme book. Your local library should carry these lost nursery songs.
WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS RHYME?
According to, rhymes.org, this actually was not supposed to be a nursery rhyme at all. It was meant to be a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Long Fellow and his son said that it was while his dad was walking up and down the stairs while holding a baby that he composed this tune. The original tune did not rhyme as much as the nursery tune does today.
DO THE CHARACTERS HAVE ANY SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE?
The characters all represent the children of the author. He had a creative way to include his family in his writings. The little girl was his daughter and she was a baby at the time he composed this. He also wrote a song called The Song Of Hiawatha, you may have heard of it because it is very popular. He actually denied writing this in his early days because he thought his trade had since developed and he did not want to be associated with such amateur assignments. I like how he called bad behavior horrid. I think we need to use that description more often these days because out of order kids have been given much slack over the passing years.
This may not be one of your top picks or favorite songs for kids but it definitely gets the point across and it comes with a chuckle and giggle. The lyrics of this nursery rhyme let you know that children were misbehaving before the internet was invented and video games. Even when there were nothing but nursery rhymes to be read, kids were still being kids. I guess some things never change. And that’s the general message of this poem.