Background
The nursery rhyme was first published by the Boston publishing firm Marsh, Capen & Lyon, as a poem by Sarah Josepha Hale on May 24, 1830, and was possibly inspired by an actual incident. As described in one of Hale's biographies: "Sarah began teaching young boys and ''girls'' in a small school not far from her homeWhy does the lamb love Mary so? Mary so, Mary so? Why does the lamb love Mary so? The eager children smiled, Mary loves the lamb, you know, Lamb, you know, lamb, you know, Mary loves the lamb, you know The teacher’s happy smile.
Authorship controversy
In 1876, at the age of 70 years, Mary Tyler (née Sawyer; March 22, 1806 - December 11, 1889) emerged to claim that she was the "Mary" from the poem. As a young girl, Mary kept a pet lamb that she took to school one day, at the suggestion of her brother. A commotion naturally ensued. Mary recalled, "visiting school that morning was a young man, by the name of John Roulstone; a nephew of the Reverend Lemuel Capen, who was then settled in Sterling, Massachusetts. It was the custom then, for students to prepare for college, with ministers and, for this purpose, Roulstone was studying with his uncle. The young man was very much pleased, with the incident of the lamb and, the next day, he rode across the fields on horseback, to the little old schoolhouse and handed me a slip of paper, which had written upon it the three original stanzas of the poem ..." This account is not supported by evidence beyond Mary's memory. The "slip of paper" has never been produced as evidence. The earliest evidence of the poem's publication is Sarah Josepha Hale's 1830 collection of poems, supporting her complete authorship of the poem. Even though this claim is unsupported by evidence, multiple sites in Sterling, Massachusetts, perpetuate the claim. A tall statue and historical marker representing Mary's Little Lamb stands in the town center. The Redstone School, where Mary Sawyer attended school and purports the incident took place, was built in 1798. The property was later purchased byText
The text as originally published consisted of three stanzas, each of eight lines, although the ABAB rhyming scheme allows each stanza to be divided into two four-line parts. In the 1830s, Lowell Mason set the nursery rhyme to a melody adding repetition in the verses:Recordings
The rhyme was the first audio recorded by Thomas Edison on his newly invented phonograph in 1877. It was the first instance of recorded English verse, following the recording of the French folk song "Au clair de la lune" by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville in 1860. In 1927, Edison reenacted the recording, which still survives. The earliest recording (1878) was retrieved by 3D imaging equipment in 2012.Alternative versions
In 1968, the song was popularized in a playful fashion by blues guitarist Buddy Guy, who might have taken the melody for his version from Freddie King's "Just Pickin'". It was covered in a similar fashion by Stevie Ray Vaughan in 1983. "Mary Had a Little Lamb" is also a song written byMedia
Note: This melody is the British version, which is slightly different from the American version. The melody of the fourth bar in the British version consists of one note repeated three times, whereas in the American version, the fourth bar consists of one note, then a note repeated twice that is two steps higher than the previous note.See also
* List of nursery rhymesReferences
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mary Had A Little Lamb American children's songs Traditional children's songs Songs about sheep Songs about shepherds Fictional sheep Songs about fictional female characters American nursery rhymes