Oral tradition Nursery rhyme
A simple nursery rhyme about a lost dog.
Story
Someone laments losing their dog.
Why we chose it
The song has proved very popular with children and is included in a number of nursery rhyme collections. It featured in the Nursery Rhyme room, which was part of our Time for Bed exhibition
Where it came from
It comes from a song written by American songwriter Septimus Winner in 1864. Winner set his text “Der Deitcher’s Dog” to a German folk tune. The original song was written in German dialect and started off by praising beer!
Where it went next
The song was rewritten in 1864 as a campaign song for the election of George B McClellan as US president and then again for Ulysses S Grant’s campaign.
Associated Stories
Dogs appear in other nursery rhymes – a little dog laughs in Hey Diddle Diddle and the child wants a dog in The Farmer’s In his Den. Old Mother Hubbard goes to the cupboard for her dog and The Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly swallows a dog to catch a cat.
Dog are popular picture book characters from Eric Hill’s Spot to Mick Inkpen’s Kipper to Lynley Dodd’s Hairy Maclary. There are disobedient dogs like Fred in Time for Bed, Fred by Yasmeen Ismail and dogs with extraordinary talents like Biff in Dogs Don’t Do Ballet by Anna Kemp. And Emily Gravett’s Dogs simply celebrates dogs.
Oral tradition Nursery rhyme