Poor Billy Boy Was Music Mad Lyrics
Billy is mad about music and as happy as any lad could be. Nobody knows the joy he knows, he says, because his fiddle takes him here and there and lifts him to the sky. Both verses end with a hi-de-diddle refrain.
Poor Billy Boy Was Music Mad
Poor Billy boy was music mad,
Oh music mad was he;
And yet he was as blithe a lad
As any lad could be -
With a hi-de-diddle,
Bow and fiddle,
Rig-a-my, ho! sang he -
For Billy was as blithe a lad
As any lad could be.
"Nobody knows the joy I know,
Or sees the sights I see,
So play me high, or play me low,
My fiddle's enough for me.
It takes me here, it takes me there -
So play me low or high -
It finds me, binds me anywhere,
And lifts me to the sky."
With a hi-de-diddle,
Bow and fiddle,
Rig-a-my, ho! sang he -
For Billy was as blithe a lad
As any lad could be.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/poor-billy-boy-was-music-mad/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Mary Mapes Dodge
- Tune
- A swinging fiddle tune, with the hi-de-diddle lines sung out loud
- Best for ages
- 3 to 8 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Bow and fiddle | Hold one arm as a fiddle and move the other as a bow across it. |
| So play me high, or play me low | Stretch your hand up high on 'high', then crouch and bring it low on 'low'. |
What Does Poor Billy Boy Was Music Mad Mean?
Music mad here means mad about music, as in "mad about football", not unwell. Blithe is an old word for cheerful and carefree, and the poem says it three times. The first verse is the storyteller's voice and the second is Billy speaking for himself: "My fiddle's enough for me." It "takes me here, it takes me there", it "finds me, binds me anywhere" and "lifts me to the sky".
The refrain With a hi-de-diddle, / Bow and fiddle, / Rig-a-my, ho! sang he is a nonsense fiddle tune that children can sing along to. It comes after each verse, and each verse then closes with the same two lines: Billy is as blithe a lad as any lad could be. The words high and low and here and there can be played with the voice.
History and Origin
This is another verse from Mary Mapes Dodge's 1874 collection Rhymes and Jingles. Fiddlers turn up in many older nursery rhymes too, such as Jacky, Come Give Me Your Fiddle.
Learning Activities
- Air fiddle: play an imaginary fiddle together, bowing slowly for the low parts and quickly for the high parts.
- High and low voices: sing the hi-de-diddle refrain once in a high voice and once in a low voice.
- Make a shaker: half-fill a clean plastic bottle with rice, seal it firmly and shake along with the beat.
- What lifts you? ask the child what makes them feel as happy as Billy with his fiddle.