Deedle, Deedle, Dumplin'! My Boy, Pete!
Deedle, Deedle, Dumplin'! My Boy, Pete!
Deedle, Deedle, Dumpling! My Boy, Pete!
Nursery Rhyme
Nursery Rhyme
(Historical Black American English)
(English)
Deedle, deedle, dumplin'! My boy, Pete!
He went to bed wid his dirty feet.
Mammy laid a switch down on dat sheet!
Deedle, deedle, dumplin'! My boy, Pete!
Deedle*, deedle, dumpling! My boy, Pete!
He went to bed with his dirty feet.
Mommy laid a switch** down on that sheet!
Deedle, deedle, dumpling! My boy, Pete!
Notes
*According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "deedle" is an alteration of "devil".
**One definition of a switch is a flexible branch that's sometimes used as a whip.
There's an English nursery rhyme called Diddle, Diddle Dumpling, My Son John that this is most likely based on. The traditional rhyme goes back to at least 1850. Here is one version of the rhyme:
Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John,
Went to bed with his trousers on,
One shoe off, and one shoe on,
Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John.
*****
Thanks and Acknowledgements
This rhyme can be found in Negro Folk Rhymes, Wise and Otherwise, with a Study by Thomas W. Talley of Fisk University (1922).
Standard English version by Lisa Yannucci.
