Humpty Dumpty Lyrics
Humpty Dumpty began as a riddle. The answer is an egg, although the words never actually say so. The rhyme was first printed in 1797.
Humpty Dumpty
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the King's horses, and all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
The older wording (The Real Mother Goose, 1916)
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the King's horses, and all the King's men
Cannot put Humpty Dumpty together again.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/humpty-dumpty/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- First published
- 1797
- Tune
- J. W. Elliott (1870)
- Best for ages
- 1 to 6 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall | Sit up straight with your arms curved in front like a big round egg. |
| Humpty Dumpty had a great fall | Wobble from side to side, then tip over gently. |
| All the king's horses and all the king's men | Gallop on the spot or march like soldiers. |
| Couldn't put Humpty together again | Shake your head and hold up your hands, as if holding broken pieces. |
What Does Humpty Dumpty Mean?
Humpty Dumpty started life as a riddle. Listeners were meant to guess what falls and cannot be put back together, even by a king's whole army. The answer is an egg, which is why he is always drawn as one, even though the rhyme never says so.
You may have heard that Humpty Dumpty was a cannon on the walls of Colchester during the English Civil War in 1648. That story first appeared in the 20th century and has no historical evidence behind it.
History and Origin
The earliest known version was printed in 1797 in Juvenile Amusements by the composer Samuel Arnold, with a slightly different ending. The words settled into the version we know during the 1800s, and the tune most people sing today was published by James William Elliott in 1870.
Lewis Carroll made Humpty famous as an egg character in Through the Looking-Glass (1871), where he sits on a wall and argues with Alice about the meaning of words. Similar riddles about an egg exist in many European languages.
Learning Activities
- Guess the riddle: read the rhyme without pictures and ask your child what Humpty might be.
- Egg craft: draw an egg, cut it into three or four pieces and let your child put Humpty together again.
- Balance game: sit on a low cushion or step and practice balancing like Humpty, then fall off gently.
- Egg drop: older children can try protecting a raw egg in a padded box and dropping it from a low height, a real science challenge.