Star Light, Star Bright
{{short description|Traditional song}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Infobox song
| name = Star Light, Star Bright
| cover =
| alt =
| type = Nursery rhyme
| written =
| published = Mid/late 19th century
| genre = Children's song
| writer =
| composer = unknown
| lyricist = unknown
}}
"Star Light, Star Bright" is an English language nursery rhyme of American origin. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 16339.
Lyrics
The lyrics usually conform to the following:
:Star light, star bright,
:First star I see tonight;
:I wish I may, I wish I might
:Have the wish I wish tonight.R. Gerlings, Hey, Diddle, Diddle and Other Best-Loved Rhymes (Windmill Books, 2009), p. 32.
Origin
According to folklorists Iona and Peter Opie, the superstition of hoping for wishes granted when seeing a shooting or falling star may date back to the ancient world. It was also mentioned in The Encyclopedia of Superstitions that wishing on the first star seen may also predate this rhyme.R. Webster, The Encyclopedia of Superstitions (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2008), p. 245. The song "Star Light, Star Bright" first began to be recorded in mid/late nineteenth-century America. It can be found in works dating to at least 1866 as the song appears in "Swallows on the Wing O'er Garden Springs of Delight" by William Furniss.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a0JIAAAAIAAJ&dq=star+light+star+bright&pg=PA35|title=Swallows on the Wing O'er Garden Springs of Delight: A Medly of Prose and Verse|author=William Furniss|publisher=Michael Doolady|year=1866|page=35}} It can also be found in an 1873 article from "To-day" magazine where the song is linked to fortunes.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WF4CAAAAIAAJ&dq=Star+Light+Star+Bright+rhyme&pg=PA132|title=To-day: The Popular Illustrated Magazine, Volume 2|author=M.P. Hardy|publisher=Maclean, Stoddart & Company|year=1873|page=131}} The song and tradition seem to have reached Britain by the early twentieth century and have since spread worldwide.I. Opie and M. Tatem, A Dictionary of Superstitions (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), pp. 175-6.