One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

A common version is given in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes:

:One, two, buckle my shoe;

: Three, four, knock at the door;

: Five, six, pick up sticks;

: Seven, eight, lay them straight;

: Nine, ten, a big fat hen;

: Eleven, twelve, dig and delve;

: Thirteen, fourteen, maids a-courting;

: Fifteen, sixteen, maids in the kitchen;

: Seventeen, eighteen, maids in waiting;

: Nineteen, twenty, my plate's empty.I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 333-4.

Other sources give differing lyrics.{{cite book |author=Knowles |first=Elizabeth M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o6rFno1ffQoC |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-19-860173-9 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=o6rFno1ffQoC&pg=PA550 550]}}

In his The Counting-Out Rhymes of Children (1888), the American collector of folklore, Henry Carrington Bolton (1843–1903), quoted an old lady who remembered a longer version of this rhyme as being used in Wrentham, Massachusetts as early as 1780. Beyond the first four lines, it proceeded:

:Nine, ten, kill a fat hen;

:Eleven, twelve, bake it well;

:Thirteen, fourteen, go a-courtin;

:Fifteen, sixteen, go to milkin’;

:Seventeen, eighteen, do the bakin’;

:Nineteen, twenty, the mill is empty;

:Twenty-one, change the gun;

:Twenty-two, the partridge flew;

:Twenty-three, she lit on a tree;

:Twenty-four, she lit down lower….

:Twenty-nine, the game is mine;

:Thirty, make a kerchy.

Some of the final lines Bolton's informant could no longer remember.Henry Carrington Bolton, The Counting-Out Rhymes of Children (New York, 1888), [https://books.google.com/books?id=uH8MAAAAYAAJ&q=%22One,+two,+buckle+my+shoe%22+-Christie+-Poirot p.92]

In the UK the rhyme was first recorded in Songs for the Nursery, published in London in 1805. This version differed beyond the number twelve, with the lyrics:

:Thirteen, fourteen, draw the curtain,

:Fifteen sixteen, the maid's in the kitchen,

:Seventeen, eighteen, she's in waiting,

:Nineteen, twenty, my stomach's empty.

A version published five years later in Gammer Gurton's Garland (1810) was titled "Arithmetick" and had the following different lines:

:Three, four, lay down lower ...

:Eleven twelve, who will delve...

:Fifteen, sixteen, maids a-kissing...

:Nineteen, twenty, my belly's empty.

In 1842, James Orchard Halliwell recorded "Shut the door" at the close of the second line.J. O. Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1842), [https://books.google.com/books?id=xZVTAAAAcAAJ&q=%22The+Nursery+Rhymes+of+England+%22 p.132]

Since April 2023, a parodied version of the song was popularized as an internet meme.{{Cite web |date=2023-04-17 |title=What Is The '1, 2, Buckle My Shoe' TikTok Meme? The Viral Video Explained |url=https://knowyourmeme.com/editorials/guides/what-is-the-1-2-buckle-my-shoe-tiktok-meme-the-viral-video-explained |access-date=2023-05-16 |website=Know Your Meme}}{{Citation |title=One Two Buckle My Shoe Is Actually Fire |date=2023-04-21 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC1fd52SxYA |access-date=2023-05-16 |language=en}} via YouTube{{Cite web |title=The 'one, two, buckle my shoe' meme explained |url=https://www.indy100.com/tiktok/one-two-buckle-my-shoe-meme-lyrics-2659907015 |access-date=2023-05-16 |website=indy100 |language=en}}

File:Walter Crane 1869.jpg

The rhyme was sometimes published alone in illustrated editions. That with lithographs by Caroline R. Baillie (Edinburgh, 1857) had an oblong format[https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/One-Two-Buckle-Shoe-Designs-Drawn-Stone/10969746579/bd Cover at Abe Books] showing domestic 18th-century interiors."One two, buckle my shoe" at [https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Selected-Titles---May-2019.html?soid=1114409408150&aid=4NTL1xw6ldc The Book Press] There were also two editions of the rhyme published from London, both illustrated by Walter Crane. The first was a single volume picture-book (John Lane, 1869) with end-papers showing a composite of the 1 – 10 sequence and of the 11 – 20 sequence. It was followed in 1910 by The Buckle My Shoe Picture Book, containing other rhymes too. This had coloured full-page illustrations: composites for lines 1-2 and 3–4, and then one for each individual line.[https://artside.unialive.com/2013/08/walter-crane-part-1.html “Walter Crane, part 1”]

In America the rhyme was used to help young people learn to count and was also individually published. Among these, the distinctive illustrations by Courtland Hoppin (1834–1876) devoted to each verse first appeared in editions published at the end of 1866.Uniform Trade List Circular (Philadelphia, November 1866), [https://books.google.com/books?id=BGQSAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22One,+Two,+Buckle+My+Shoe%22+++%22Courtland+Hoppin%22&pg=PA237 p.237] In Old Mother Goose's Rhymes And Tales (London and New York, 1889) there was only a single page given to the rhyme,[https://fineartamerica.com/featured/nursery-rhyme-and-illustration-of-one-ken-welsh.html Fine Art America] illustrated by Constance Haslewood in the style of Kate Greenaway.Leslie McGrath, "Print for Young Readers", in History of the Book in Canada, University of Toronto 2005, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4nHT2u0ovSMC&dq=%22constance+haslewood%22&pg=PA405 Vol.2, p.405]

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Category:Counting-out rhymes

Category:English nursery rhymes

Category:American children's songs

Category:American nursery rhymes

Category:Internet memes introduced in 2023