WHAT are little boys made of?
What are little boys made of?
Slugs and snails and puppy dogs’ tails,
That’s what little boys are made of.
What are little girls made of?
What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice and all things nice,
That’s what little girls are made of.
This well-known rhyme is part of a much longer work credited to the English poet Robert Southey (1774-1843) and called ‘What All the World Is Made Of, written around 1820.
After a revolutionary youth – at one stage, he and fellow poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge planned to set up a utopian community in America – Robert Southey became part of the establishment. Made Poet Laureate in 1813, he was very famous in his lifetime. His popular biography of Lord Nelson re-established a rather scandalous figure as one of England’s great heroes. Southey took himself and his writing extremely seriously, so, like Longfellow (see There Was a Little Girl), he would have been horrified to learn that his nonsensical jingle for children is now his best-known poem.
The remaining verses of the rhyme – the language updated from that of Southey’s original poem – go like this:
What are little babies made of?
What are little babies made of?
Nappies and crumbs and sucking their thumbs,
That’s what little babies are made of.
What are young men made of?
What are young men made of?
Sighs and leers and crocodile tears,
That’s what young men are made of.
What are young women made of?
What are young women made of?
Rings and jings and other fine things,
That’s what young women are made of.
What are our sailors made of?
What are our sailors made of?
Pitch and tar, pig-tail and scar,
That’s what our sailors are made of.
What are our soldiers made of?
What are our soldiers made of?
Pipeclay and drill, the foeman to kill,
That’s what our soldiers are made of.
What are our nurses made of?
What are our nurses made of?
Bushes and thorns and old cow’s horns,
That’s what our nurses are made of.
What are our fathers made of?
What are our fathers made of?
Pipes and smoke and collars that choke,
That’s what our fathers are made of.
What are our mothers made of?
What are our mothers made of?
Ribbons and laces and sweet pretty faces,
That’s what our mothers are made of.
What are old men made of?
What are old men made of?
Slippers that flop and a bald-headed top,
That’s what old men are made of.
What are old women made of?
What are old women made of?
Reels, and jeels and old spinning wheels,
That’s what old women are made of.
What is all the world made of?
What is all the world made of?
Fighting a spot and loving a lot,
That’s what all the world’s made of.