Origins
Similar rhymes can be found in many societies, including ancient Greece. The modern English language rhyme can be dated to at least to the seventeenth century when James Howell in his collection of proverbs noted:
- Raine raine goe to Spain: faire weather come againe.
A version very similar to the modern version was noted by John Aubrey in 1687 as used by "little children" to "charme away the Raine...":
- Rain raine goe away,
- Come again a Saturday.
A wide variety of alternatives have been recorded including: "Midsummer day", "washing day", "Christmas Day" and "Martha's wedding day".
In the mid-nineteenth century James Orchard Halliwell collected and published the version:
- Rain, rain, go away
- Come again another day
- Little Arthur wants to play.
In a book from the late 19th century, the lyrics are as follows:
- Rain, Rain,
- Go away;
- Come again,
- April day;
- Little Johnny wants to play.
Read more about this topic: Rain Rain Go Away
Famous quotes containing the word origins:
“Grown onto every inch of plate, except
Where the hinges let it move, were living things,
Barnacles, mussels, water weeds—and one
Blue bit of polished glass, glued there by time:
The origins of art.”
—Howard Moss (b. 1922)
“Lucretius
Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
smiling carves dreams, bright cells
Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)