Poems

Bonny Lass, Pretty Lass

Mother Goose 1806 – 
 
 

Bonny lass, pretty lass,
Wilt thou be mine?
Thou shalt not wash dishes
Nor yet serve the swine.
Thou shalt sit on a cushion
And sew a fine seam,
And thou shalt eat strawberries,
Sugar and cream.

 
Analysis (ai): The speaker adopts a courtly, almost barter-like tone, offering luxuries in exchange for companionship, framing gendered labor as something to be escaped rather than shared.
  • Gender and Labor Unlike many nursery rhymes that depict domestic routines as inevitable, this poem positions exemption from chores as a reward, implying that women’s value is tied to appearance and leisure rather than function.
  • Class Imagery The mention of cushions, fine sewing, and delicacies like strawberries with sugar and cream signals aristocratic aspiration, contrasting sharply with the common rural tasks of dishwashing and swine-keeping.
  • Structure and Form Composed in simple quatrains with a loose iambic rhythm and clear AABB rhyme, it adheres to the musical, mnemonic style typical of 17th-century oral tradition without deviating into formal experimentation.
  • Comparison to Other Mother Goose Poems While most Mother Goose verses focus on chaos, punishment, or moral instruction, this one is unusually transactional and romantic, resembling courtship songs more than cautionary tales.
  • Historical Context Unlike contemporaneous broadsides that often satirized courtship or emphasized economic realism, this poem idealizes it, aligning with pastoral conventions but stripped of irony.
  • Language and Diction Archaic terms like “wilt thou” and “bonny” lend a timelessness and sing-song elegance, distancing the fantasy from everyday speech and heightening its ritualistic quality.
  • Modern Dissonance Today, the poem’s promise of luxury in exchange for female companionship can be read as emblematic of instrumentalized relationships, where women are offered comfort in return for their presence.
  • Alternative Reading Rather than presenting a benign offer, the speaker may be enacting a subtle form of control—replacing physical labor with domestic expectations like sewing, thus maintaining gendered roles under a guise of privilege.
  • Place in the Canon Though less cited than rhymes like “Humpty Dumpty” or “Mary, Mary”, this piece stands out for its sustained romantic proposition, a rarity in a genre dominated by narrative brevity and absurdity.

Mother Goose

1806 –
 

Mother Goose is a character that originated in children’s fiction, as the imaginary author of a collection of French fairy tales and later of English nursery rhymes. She also appeared in a song, the first stanza of which often functions now as a nursery rhyme. The character also appears in a pantomime tracing its roots to 1806.

About Mother Goose
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