This is an Open Thread / Coffee Hour and all topics of conversation are welcome. What is for dinner? How are you doing? What is on your mind. If you are new to Street Prophets please introduce yourself below in a comment. Today's Coffee Hour is brought to you by rain.
It is raining and windy here in the California, Bay Area and the power has been off twice. While waiting for the power to come back this rhyme popped into my mind.
Rain, rain, go away, Come again another day.
When the power came back on I looked up the rhyme in Wikipedia and found out its origins were old. Jump the fold for a snip of the Wikipedia article on this rhyme.
So what is the weather like where you are?
The comments for this article are are after community links and its sub thread.
Origins
"Rain, Rain, Go Away" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19096.
Similar rhymes can be found in many societies, including ancient Greece and ancient Rome. The modern English language rhyme can be dated to at least to the 17th century when James Howell in his collection of proverbs noted:
Rain rain go to Spain: fair weather come again.
A version very similar to the modern version was noted by John Aubrey in 1687 as used by "little children" to "charm away the Rain...":
Rain Rain go away,
Come again on Saturday.
A wide variety of alternatives have been recorded including: "Midsummer day", "washing day", "Christmas Day" and "Martha's wedding day".
In the mid-19th century James Orchard Halliwell collected and published the version:
Rain, rain, go away
Come again another day
Little Arthur wants to play.
In a book from the late 19th century, the lyrics are as follows:
Rain, Rain, Go away;
Come again, April day;
Little Johnny wants to play.
From Wikipedia: Rain Rain Go Away