Oranges and Lemons

[mirrorshard]

[Poll #1498589]

Comments

[the-alchemist.livejournal.com]

That's the bell says "I do not know", not that I'm saying I do not know.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

This was the intended interpretation of the poll item.

[soupytwist.livejournal.com]

Oh good, I was wondering too. Hahah.

(And 'old' doesn't rhyme! Also for some reason my brain wants to swap that item with "When I grow rich", which makes even less sense and is probably a sign I should try to go to sleep.)

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

It doesn't, but it's still the version I remember as a child. The Shoreditch verse was "When I am rich" to compensate.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

I know those lines as "When I am old" and "When I am rich" respectively.

[battlekitty.livejournal.com]

holy crap, I was right... I don't really remember any of it clearly!

[mostlyacat.livejournal.com]

In the concert yesterday we did some of the verses of the (choir only) first carol in round-tastic form - so half the choir deliberately started a minim after the first half. Of course the audience probably thought that things had just gone terribly terribly wrong. In the last verse we did the same but four ways so they probably thought we had totally lost it by then.

[harald387.livejournal.com]

There's no "tickybox!" option.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

Of course not, it doesn't scan.

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

*giggles*

[yoyoangel.livejournal.com]

In a freaky coincidence, we were singing this at our family feast yesterday, and discussing the different endings used at different primary schools when it's used as a skipping rhyme.

[prolificdiarist.livejournal.com]

I was thinking this when it came up on Twitter as well. :)

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

Oh, do some of them not end by chopping heads off? I don't know, kids these days...

[yoyoangel.livejournal.com]

Our primary school had an extra bit about shaking it (the head) in a box and never letting it go, but we think it might be unique to our school.

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

... Ewwwwww. ;-)

[yoyoangel.livejournal.com]

*Is* it 'at Bow' rather than 'of Bow'? We always sang 'of'.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

We sang 'of Bow' as well.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

I always sang 'of Bow', but the Internet definitely wanted 'at' last night, so I was confused.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

If there weren't multiple versions, it wouldn't be a traditional song.

That's practically the definition of trad or folk!

Besides, if you put 'great bell of Bow' into Google, you get plenty of hits.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

Oh, no arguments there! It still made a good excuse for a poll, though.

[emperor]

I think it's "of Bow", but wasn't sure enough to tick the box.

[midnightmelody.livejournal.com]

Have you seen this project (http://www.ioe.ac.uk/newsEvents/27010.html)?

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

Ooh, no, I hadn't. That's fascinating.

[woodpijn.livejournal.com]

The version I know goes "I'm sure I don't know".

[yoyoangel.livejournal.com]

That's interesting - definitely "I do not know says the Great Bell of Bow" at my school.

[shuripentu.livejournal.com]

The Great Bell of Bow says "I'm sure I don't know", according to Cubland.

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

I have a copy of Mother Goose's Treasury upstairs extracted from my childhood boxes just so I could look up all 20-odd verses!
[checks]
"I'm sure I don't know," says the Great Bell at Bow.

Only 16 couplets, though.