Hickory Dikory Dock

= Hickory Dickory Dock =

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"Hickory Dickory Dock" or "Hickety Dickety Dock" is a popular English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Indexnumber of 6489.

'''Lyrics and music '''

Hickety Dickety Dock, illustrated by Denslow

The most common modern version is:

Other variants include "down the mouse ran"[2] or "down the mouse run"[3] or "and down he ran" or "and down he run" in place of "the mouse ran down".'''Score Origins and meaning '''

The earliest recorded version of the rhyme is in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published in London in about 1744, which uses the opening line: 'Hickere, Dickere Dock'.[1] The next recorded version in Mother Goose's Melody (c. 1765), uses 'Dickery, Dickery Dock'.[1]

The rhyme is thought by some commentators to have originated as a counting-out rhyme.[1] Westmorland shepherds in the nineteenth century used the numbers Hevera (8), Devera (9) and Dick (10).[1]

The rhyme is thought to have been based on the astronomical clock at Exeter Cathedral. The clock has a small hole in the door below the face for the resident cat to hunt mice.[4]'''See also  Notes '''
 * Yan Tan Tethera
 * Chiastic structure
 * List of nursery rhymes
 * Hickory, Dickory, and Doc
 * The Last Colony
 * 1) The American Mercury, Volume 77, p. 105
 * 2) Cathedral Cats. Richard Surman. HarperCollins. 2004
 * 1) Cathedral Cats. Richard Surman. HarperCollins. 2004
 * 1) Cathedral Cats. Richard Surman. HarperCollins. 2004