Boys and girls come out to play,
The moon does shine as bright as day;
Come with a hoop, and come with a call,
Come with a good will or not at all.
Loose your supper, and loose your sleep,
Come to your playfellows in the street;
Up the ladder and down the wall.
A halfpenny loaf will serve us all.
But when the loaf is gone, what will you do?
Those who would eat must work — 'tis true.
Notes
Composition date is unknown - the above date represents the first publication date.
The lyrical form of this poem is couplets.
1. Cf. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, ed. Iona and
Peter Opie (1951\; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), no. 75, pp. 99-100.10. The last two words and the dash are missing and supplied
from the edition of Isaiah Thomas (Worcester, Mass.,
ca. 1785).
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Comments
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boys and girls come out to play
From guest Nicolas (contact)
From Paris, My little girl is learning english at school : she sang us this song : the firsts words were well known, the latests were not ! Thanks to your website, the whole family will be able to sing it. Thanks a lot -
the last lines...
From guest Sarah (contact)
i always knew the last lines to be "you bring milk and i'll find flower, and we'll have pudding in half an hour!" hmm, wonder if that's wrong... luv the ryhm tho, i memorised it when i was 4 years old. -
Great one from early childhood memories. I always thought it said "Leave your supper and leave your sleep" I always liked this nursery rhyme and snag it frequently when I was a child. I can still sing it to my young grandson.
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great
From guest erin hill (contact)
this poem would be great if i was a little longer and spilt up between girls and boys -
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More of a moralistic version than I remember, I can't remember the ending. Also, my version had 'join' rather than 'to' after 'come' and 'leave your supper and leave your sleep' rather than 'lose your supper and lose your sleep'. Yet another great one that I remember from early childhood
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