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"It's Raining, It's Pouring" is an English language nursery rhyme and children's song of American origin. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 16814.[1]
| "It's Raining, It's Pouring" | |
|---|---|
| Nursery rhyme | |
| Recorded | 1939 |
The first two lines of this rhyme can be found in The Little Mother Goose, published in the US in 1912.[2] The melody is associated with "A Tisket, A Tasket" and "What Are Little Boys Made Of?"[3]
The earliest known audio recording of the song was made in 1939 in New York by anthropologist and folklorist Herbert Halpert and is held in the Library of Congress.[4] Charles Ives added musical notes 1939,[citation needed] and a version of it was copyrighted in 1944 by Freda Selicoff.[5][6]
The lyrics of the poem (song) goes as follows:[7]
- It's raining, it's pouring,
- The old man is snoring,
- He bumped his head and went to bed,
- And couldn't get up in the morning.
It has been suggested that “it’s raining. It’s pouring” is a metaphor for alcohol liberally flowing. The old man gets drunk causing him to bump his head.
It has further been suggested that the verse is a "classic description" of a head injury ("bumped his head"), followed by a lucid interval and an inability to resume normal activity ("couldn't get up in the morning").[7] Andrew Kaye in Essential Neurosurgery suggested that, in regard to the first verse at least, the rhyme is an interpretation of an accidental death.[7]
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