I Had a Little Husband Lyrics
A husband so small he fits in a mug, drums in it, and needs a tiny handkerchief for his tiny nose. This is a Tom Thumb story squeezed into four lines.
I Had a Little Husband
I had a little husband no bigger than my thumb,
I put him in a pint pot, and there I bid him drum,
I bought a little handkerchief to wipe his little nose,
And a pair of little garters to tie his little hose.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/i-had-a-little-husband/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- Tune
- Traditional
- Best for ages
- 3 to 7 years
What Does I Had a Little Husband Mean?
The joke is all about size. The husband is no bigger than a thumb, so a pint pot, a large drinking mug, is big enough to be his room, and he plays a drum inside it. Everything he needs has to be miniature: a little handkerchief and a pair of little garters, the bands that once held up a man's stockings, or hose.
Children love tiny things, and this rhyme invites them to imagine what else such a small person would need.
History and Origin
Halliwell suggested in the 1840s that the rhyme might be connected to stories of a man no bigger than a thumb, like the English tale of Tom Thumb and a Danish story about a tiny man who wanted to marry a very tall woman. Tom Thumb stories were printed in England from the 1600s and were hugely popular with children.
Learning Activities
- Tiny things: make a thumb-sized person out of clay and build them a house from a cup or a matchbox.
- Thumb puppet: draw a face on your thumb and let it "drum" on a paper cup.
- Read on: pair it with a Tom Thumb story or a picture book about tiny people.