Elsie Marley Lyrics
Elsie Marley has become far too grand to feed the pigs. She stays in bed until eight or nine, and the whole village has noticed.
Elsie Marley
Elsie Marley is grown so fine,
She won't get up to serve the swine,
But lies in bed till eight or nine,
And surely she does take her time.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/elsie-marley/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- Tune
- Traditional
- Best for ages
- 3 to 8 years
What Does Elsie Marley Mean?
The rhyme teases a woman who has become so fine, meaning so grand and fashionable, that she will no longer do her farm chores. Instead of getting up early to feed the swine (pigs), she lies in bed until eight or nine o'clock, which was very late for country people who rose at dawn.
History and Origin
Unusually for a nursery rhyme, this one seems to be about a real person. Elsie Marley was a well-known innkeeper near Chester-le-Street in County Durham, in the north of England, in the 1700s, and a longer song about her was popular in the region. Halliwell printed the nursery verse in the 1840s.
Learning Activities
- Wake-up time: use a toy clock to show eight or nine o'clock, and talk about what time your family gets up.
- Farm chores: list the jobs that have to be done on a farm every morning, and who does them.