Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater facts for kids
Quick facts for kids "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater" |
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William Wallace Denslow's illustrations for "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater", from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose
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| Nursery rhyme | |
| Published | c. 1825 |
"Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater" is a well-known nursery rhyme from England. It's a short, fun poem often sung to young children. This rhyme is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as number 13497. This index helps keep track of folk songs and rhymes from around the world.
About the Rhyme
This rhyme tells a simple, imaginative story. It features a character named Peter and his unusual way of dealing with his wife.
What the Rhyme Says
The most common version of "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater" goes like this:
Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,
Had a wife but couldn't keep her;
He put her in a pumpkin shell
And there he kept her very well.
Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,
Had another and didn't love her;
Peter learned to read and spell,
And then he loved her very well.
The first part of the rhyme is the most famous. It describes Peter putting his wife into a large pumpkin shell. This was a playful way to show he wanted to keep her close. The second part is less common today. It talks about Peter learning to read and spell. This helped him to love his second wife very much.
Where Did It Come From?
Nursery rhymes often have a long history. The first known version of "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater" was printed a long time ago. It appeared in a book called Infant Institutes, part the first. This book was published in London around 1797.
The rhyme also showed up in America a bit later. It was in a book called Mother Goose's Quarto. This book was printed in Boston, Massachusetts, around 1825.
An older version of the rhyme was found in Scotland. It was collected in Aberdeen and published in 1868. This version had slightly different words:
Peter, my neeper,
Had a wife,
And he couldna' keep her,
He pat her i' the wa',
And lat a' the mice eat her.
This Scottish version is also thought to be an older form of another rhyme. That rhyme is known as "Eeper Weeper". It shows how rhymes can change over time and in different places.
