Title: “Itsy Bitsy Spider”
General Information about Item:
- Children’s folklore, lullaby
- Language: English
- Country of origin: America
- Informant: ES
- Date Collected: October 16, 2021
Informant Data:
- ES was born in Rockford, Illinois on September 26, 2002. She grew up in Rockford living with her mother, father, and sister, Natalie. Her extended family also lives in nearby areas of Illinois. Her family is not religious. ES focused on athletics growing up and was also involved in dance and choir growing up. Her family spends lots of time on the water on their boat spending their time singing and fishing.
Contextual Data:
- Cultural context: This is a common American lullaby. It involves somewhat scary content since children are generally fearful of spiders, but the song is sung in a gentle sing-song tone which is soothing and beneficial for helping the child fall asleep. “Itsy Bitsy Spider” is common across all parts of America, not specifically Illinois. The song is used to foster parental-child connection and to soothe the child to sleep.
- Social Context: ES learned this song from her mom as a young child. She remembers her mom singing the song and when she was putting her to bed. ES is afraid of spiders but the song did not make her scared because of the gentle tone of the song.
Item:
“The itsy bitsy spider crawled up the water spout.
Down came the rain, and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain,
and the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again”
- This lullaby is often accompanied by using your opposing pointer finger and thumb, moving them upward like a spider moving. It also features rhyme scheme and a simple melody for ease of memory for children and parents.
Associated File:
Informants Comments:
“I think this is one of the only lullabies I can remember from my childhood and everyone I know knows this one”
Collector’s Comments:
This lullaby is super common and I remember hearing it when I was growing up.
Collector:
Ali Silva
Dartmouth College
Russian 13
Professor Gronas and Professor Apresyan
Fall 2021
Tags:
Dartmouth
Students
Verbal Folklore
English Lullaby
Spider