References in Literature and Popular Culture
Since the late nineteenth century the rhyme has been seen as one of the most popular and well known in the English speaking world. It has also been referenced in both literature and popular culture. It was used by T. S. Eliot at the climax of his poem The Wasteland (1922). The final line of the verse was probably the inspiration for the title of Lerner and Loewe's 1956 musical My Fair Lady. The tune is often used by English football supporters as the basis for chants.
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Famous quotes containing the words literature, popular and/or culture:
“Most literature on the culture of adolescence focuses on peer pressure as a negative force. Warnings about the “wrong crowd” read like tornado alerts in parent manuals. . . . It is a relative term that means different things in different places. In Fort Wayne, for example, the wrong crowd meant hanging out with liberal Democrats. In Connecticut, it meant kids who weren’t planning to get a Ph.D. from Yale.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“The poet will prevail to be popular in spite of his faults, and in spite of his beauties too. He will hit the nail on the head, and we shall not know the shape of his hammer. He makes us free of his hearth and heart, which is greater than to offer one the freedom of a city.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It is not part of a true culture to tame tigers, any more than it is to make sheep ferocious.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)