Poets must be really bummed out that no word rhymes with “month.” It seems like the word “month” would come in handy for love poems that you need to write early in your relationship. As in, “I’ve ...

Rhyme thrives at both poles of literature. It is the material of a greeting card—“Roses are red / Violets are blue / Sugar is sweet / And so are you”—and the high-tragic language of Racine. Rhyme ...

When a Muppet calls something weird, you know it is. Well, such is the case for the heart-racing, albeit brief nursery rhyme “Jack Be Nimble,” which “roving reporter” Kermit the Frog showcases below ...

The classic French nursery rhyme “Frère Jacques,” which in English is sometimes known as “Brother John” or “Brother Jacques,” is one of those songs that, despite it being in a foreign language, is ...

When sounds match up at the end of a line It’s called ‘end rhyme’ and sounds mighty fine So who wins the battle? And the prize of a rattle? Let’s call it a draw? Okay, that’s fine. When words have ...

Jack Sprat first appears in print around 1569—it cropped up twice in an anonymously published morality play titled The Marriage of Wit and Science: “Heard you ever such a counsel of such a Jack sprat?

London librarian Chris Roberts fills Debbie Elliott in on the three men in the tub as a series on the real meaning of nursery rhymes continues. Roberts is the author of Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The ...