Customer Reviews

Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind the Rhyme

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My sister gave me this book as a Christmas present and I have been devouring it ever since. It is a light and breezy examination of nursery rhymes and where they come from. Someone earlier criticized the author for going off on tangents that had nothing to do with the rhyme in question, and I disagree with this. I think that he was providing a historical context for the rhymes that served to deepen one's understanding of how they came into being, not padding the book with useless information. I have found it to be a fascinating read, and the people with whom I have shared some of the revelations gleaned from it (Little Jack Horner is about a land thief! Mary, Mary, quite contrary is about Bloody Mary!) have also been intrigued. "Heavy Words Lightly Thrown" is a clever and witty diversion that will change the way you look at nursery rhymes -- and make you feel like a smarty-pants in the process. An absolute must for any trivia buffs out there.

Nowhere are false etymologies more rampant than in the genre of nursery rhyme interpretation. Chris Roberts, using meticulous scholarly methodology, has traced the rhythms of our childhoods to their true origins, and does so with captivating pizzazz. He has performed the dusty scholarship so that we don't have to, and often he finds that our favorite nonsense rhymes are just...nonsense. Wonderful book.

This book makes for fun and light reading, perfect for those bits and pieces of time when you're waiting for an appointment. The author's approach is interesting and engaging, and the book helpfully provides a glossary to help non-Brits understand the Britishisms. Unfortunately, the book also left me wanting more information in several places, and sometimes the author sacrifices data in favor of humor (and he has an annoying obsession with football). Still, a painless way to learn about common nursery rhymes.

This book, which explores the origin of some 40 familiar nursery rhymes, alternated between being fascinating and frustrating. Fascinating because of the unexpected nuggets of information it contains ('Tweedledum and Tweedledee' was based on a feud between Handel and another composer, Bononcini; 'Banbury Cross' was intended to mock the Puritans; 'Baa-baa black sheep' was an early complaint about taxes; 'Sing a song of sixpence' is about the first two wives of Henry VIII and the dissolution of the monasteries). Frustrating because all too often the 'explanation' is little more than the presentation of assorted theories of varying degrees of plausibility, with no resolution provided (though to be fair to the author, this probably reflects a desire not to go beyond the bounds of interpretation acceptable on the basis of current scholarly research).

There is a distinctly English emphasis to the rhymes included in the book, and some (Elsie Marley, London's burning, Turn again Whittington, Remember Remember, Taffy was a Welshman) are likely to be unfamiliar to non-English readers. An interesting feature of the book is that each rhyme is illustrated by one of a panel of 30 artists commissioned for the purpose. As you might expect, the quality of the illustrations is decidedly mixed, ranging from the charming (Celia Biscoe's drawings to accompany 'Jack Be Nimble' and 'Georgy Porgy') to the truly abysmal ('Here we go round the mulberry bush', 'Three Men in a Tub'; both drawings appear to have been done by a manic depressive).

I have no hesitation in saying that you will find much in this book to interest you. I'm equally confident that some of the material will bore or irritate you. A mixed bag, but with much to recommend it.

Those looking for an insightful peek into the origins of those enigmatic nursery rhymes will probably not be disappointed by Chris Roberts' Heavy Words Thrown Lightly: The Reason Behind the Rhyme. Taking many of the best (and lesser) known nursery rhymes, Roberts puts them in historical context and dissects them (in an entertaining fashion) in order to reveal how these seemingly harmless rhymes often commented on the social and political climates of their day, as well as on subjects less couth. This book's chief failing is that it is sometimes difficult to discern where Roberts' sarcasm and conjecture ends and the actual facts begin, making this book, perhaps, a doubtful resource and more of an entertainment. Worth reading, nonetheless.

This book depended too much on supposition. Rather than telling us the reason behind the rhyme, too frequently he told us several ways it might have been. This was musing more than fact finding.

I'm very interested in the origin of nursery rhymes, and was therefore not at all enthralled by this book. Almost from the first page, my enthusiasm began to wane; after a couple chapters I became downright bored. The author demonstrates that he is very knowledgeable, but never quite ties his observations of history directly to the nursery rhyme being discussed. The title is the most interesting line of the book. Sorry to say this was quite a disappointing reading experience for me.

What an interesting way to study history. Who knew how so many familiar rhymes came out of specific periods of history? Well, I guess Chris Roberts did. HEAVY WORDS was a useful tool in my English classes to help them create simple rhymes to highlight current political events and themes.

This was a very enjoyable book. Light, but interesting reading. I even bought an extra as a gift.

I've long wanted an annotated Mother Goose book, and had high hopes for this one. Sadly, while it was quite entertainingly written, it fell short of being the compendium of knowledge I had wished to own. The author makes many contemporary references but fudges on real insight in many cases. Still, it is a fun read.