What Are Little Boys Made Of?
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"What Are Little Boys Made Of?" is a popular nursery rhyme dating from the early nineteenth century. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 821.
Lyrics
Here is a representative modern version of the lyrics:
What are little boys made of?
What are little boys made of?
Frogs and snails
And puppy-dogs' tails,
That's what little boys are made of.
What are little girls made of?
What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice
And everything nice,
That's what little girls are made of.[1]
As would be expected given its status in popular tradition, the rhyme appears in many variant forms. For example, other versions may describe boys as being made of "slugs",[2][3] "snakes",[4][5] or "snips",[6] rather than "frogs" as above.
[edit] Origins
In the earliest known versions, the first ingredient for boys is either "snips" or "snigs",[7] the latter being a Cumbrian dialect word for a small eel.
The rhyme sometimes appears as part of a larger work called "What Folks Are Made Of" or "What All the World Is Made Of". Other stanzas describe what babies, young men, young women, sailors, soldiers, nurses, fathers, mothers, old men, old women, and all folks are made of. According to Iona and Peter Opie, this first appears in a manuscript by the English poet Robert Southey (17741843), who added the stanzas other than the two below.[1] Though it is not mentioned elsewhere in his works or papers, it is generally agreed to be by him.[8]
The relevant section in the version attributed to Southey was:
What are little boys made of made of
What are little boys made of
Snips & snails & puppy dogs tails
And such are little boys made of.
What are young women made of, &c
Sugar & spice & all things nice[1]
