Polly Put the Kettle On

= Polly Put the Kettle On =

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"Polly Put the Kettle On" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7899.

'''Lyrics '''

Advertisement for the 1916 film, based on a screen story by Grace Helen Bailey inspired by the song.

Common modern versions include:
 * Polly put the kettle on,
 * Polly put the kettle on,
 * Polly put the kettle on,
 * We'll all have tea.


 * Sukey take it off again,
 * Sukey take it off again,
 * Sukey take it off again,
 * They've all gone away.[1]

'''Origins '''A song with the title: "Molly Put the Kettle On or Jenny's Baubie" was published by Joseph Dale in London in 1803.[2] It was also printed, with "Polly" instead of "Molly" in Dublin about 1790–1810 and in New York around 1803–07.[3] The nursery rhyme is mentioned in Charles Dickens' Barnaby Rudge (1841), which is the first record of the lyrics in their modern form.[1]

In middle-class families in the mid-eighteenth century "Sukey" was equivalent to "Susan" and Polly was a pet-form of Mary.[1]

The tune associated with this rhyme "Jenny's Baubie" is known to have existed since the 1770s.[1] The melody is vaguely similar to "Oh du lieber Augustin", which was published in Mainz in 1788–89.[3]'''Notes '''
 * 1) I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd ed., 1997), pp. 353–54.
 * 2) D. M. Kassler, W. Hawes, D. W. Krummel and A. Tyson, eds, Music entries at Stationers' Hall, 1710–1818: from lists prepared for William Hawes (Aldershot: Ashgate 2004), p. 514.
 * 3) James J. Fuld, The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk (1966, 5th ed., Dover, 2000), pp. 399–400.