Little Poll Parrot Explained

Little Poll Parrot
Type:	Nursery rhyme
Published:	1853

"Little Poll Parrot" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20178.

Lyrics

Like Little Miss Muffet and Little Jack Horner the verse is an example of a nursery rhyme that contains six dactylic lines. The most common modern version of the lyrics is:

Little Poll Parrot

Sat in his garret

Eating toast and tea;

A little brown mouse

Jumped into the house,

And stole it all away.^[1]

Origins

It has been argued that the rhyme originates in the seventeenth century.^[2] The earliest printed version was in a collection by James Orchard Halliwell in the 1840s.^[1]

Notes and References

1. I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 353.
2. Book: Hunt, Peter . International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature . 1998 . Taylor & Francis . 0-415-08856-9 . 178 . registration .