Where can I find the nursery rhyme, To the Ladybird or The Ladybird?
I have a copy of the original by Charlotte Smith (below), but I want to find out if there have been any variations of it, preferably in the last century…
Oh! Lady-bird-, Lady-bird, why dost thou roam
So far from thy comrades, so distant from home?
Why dost thou, who canst revel all day in the air,
Who the sweets of the grove and the garden, canst share;
In a fold of a leaf, who canst form thee a bower,
And a palace enjoy in the tube of a flower;
Ah, why, simple Lady-bird, why doust thou venture,
The dwellings of man so familir to enter?
In Medieval England farmers would set torches to the old hop (used in flavoring beer) vines after the harvest in order to clear the fields for the next planting. This poem was sung as a warning to the ladybugs that were still crawling on the vines in search of aphids. The ladybugs’ children (larvae) could get away from the flames, but the pupae, referred to as “Nan” in some versions, were fastened to the plants and thus could not escape.
Pupae are the larvae when they have formed a cocoon and are changing into adults. “Nan” was originally an affectionate form of the name “Ann” (but it is now generally used as a short form of “Nancy”).
1.)
Ladybird ladybird fly away home,
Your house in on fire and your children are gone,
All except one and that’s little Ann,
For she crept under the frying pan.
2.)
Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home,
Your house is on fire, your children all gone,
Except little Nan, who sits in a pan,
Weaving gold laces as fast as she can.
3.)
Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home,
Your house is on fire,
Your children shall burn!
4.)
Ladybird, ladybird fly away home,
Your house is on fire and your children are gone,
All except one,
And her name was Aileen
And she hid under a soup tureen.
5.)
Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home.
Your house is on fire;
Your children all roam.
Except little Nan
Who sits in her pan
Weaving her laces as fast as she can.
6.)
Ladybird, ladybird,
Fly away home.
Your house is on fire,
Your children are flown,
All but a little one
Under a stone.
7.)
adybird, ladybird, fly away home,
Your horse is on foot, your children are gone,
All but one,
And that’s little John,
And he lies under the grindle stone.
8.)
An old Scottish version is given article on Ladybirds (Coccinellidae):
Dowdy-cow, dowdy-cow, ride away heame,
Thy house is burnt, and thy bairns are tean,
And if thou means to save thy bairns
Take thy wings and flee away!
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