Jenny's Noodle

Image via Our Little Library

Welcome to September! Where did the summer go? Although, it was still in the 90's here in Michigan today, so I guess the season hasn't quite left us just yet.

Wednesday also happens to be the 180th birthday of the classic nursery rhyme Mary Had a Little Lamb. Written by poet and publisher Sarah Josepha Hale, the first recorded publication of Mary Had a Little Lamb was in a children's magazine called Juvenile Miscellany on September 1, 1830.

A bit of controversy follows Mary in that some say the poem is based on a true story. Residents of Sterling, a small town in Massachusetts, insist the nursery rhyme was not written by Hale but by a classmate of Mary Sawyer, whose pet lamb actually followed her to school one day in 1815.

Thomas Edison recited the first stanza of the poem to test his invention of the phonograph in 1877, making Mary Had a Little Lamb the second audio recording to be successfully made and played back. The song is also one of the first that aspiring pianists learn to play—it's only 4 notes.

Mary had a little lamb, Little lamb, little lamb, Mary had a little lamb, Whose fleece was white as snow. And everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went, And everywhere that Mary went, The lamb was sure to go. It followed her to school one day, School one day, school one day, It followed her to school one day, Which was against the rules. It made the children laugh and play, Laugh and play, laugh and play, It made the children laugh and play To see a lamb at school.

And so the teacher turned it out, Turned it out, turned it out, And so the teacher turned it out, But still it lingered near. And waited patiently about, Patiently about, patiently about, And waited patiently about Til Mary did appear. "Why does the lamb love Mary so? Love Mary so? Love Mary so?" "Why does the lamb love Mary so," The eager children cry. "Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know. The lamb, you know, the lamb, you know," "Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know," The teacher did reply.