"Here lies ye bodye of Solomon Grundy. Died on Saturday..." An illustration from Clara E. Atwood's 1901 A Book of Nursery Rhymes

"Solomon Grundy" is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19299.[1]

Lyrics

The rhyme has varied very little since it was first collected by James Orchard Halliwell and published in 1842 with the lyrics:

Short version

Solomon Grundy,
Born on a Monday,
Christened on Tuesday,
Married on Wednesday,
Took ill on Thursday,
Grew worse on Friday,
Died on Saturday,
Buried on Sunday,
That was the end,
Of Solomon Grundy.[2][3]

The words of a French version of the rhyme were adapted by the Dada poet Philippe Soupault in 1921 and published as an account of his own life:

PHILIPPE SOUPAULT dans son lit / né un lundi / baptisé un mardi / marié un mercredi / malade un jeudi / agonisant un vendredi / mort un samedi / enterré un dimanche / c'est la vie de Philippe Soupault[4][5]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Roud Folksong Index S276827Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday". Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. English Folk Dance and Song Society. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  2. ^ I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 394-5.
  3. ^ "Solomon Grundy". Rhyme Zone. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  4. ^ Stewart, Susan. Nonsense: Aspects of Intertextuality in Folklore and Literature, Johns Hopkins, 1979, p. 191. ISBN 0-8018-2258-0.
  5. ^ Littérature 19, May 1921, included under the title "Les chansons des buts et des rois" among several other adaptations of nursery rhymes
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