Wee Willie Winkie

I often wonder if anyone else's parents sang this nursery rhyme to them when they were younger?


I remember often times I didn't want to go to bed. So my mother would say "Right, that's it! Willie Winkie's coming for you!" or even if I was taking too long to get into bed she would say "Hurry up! Quick! He's coming!" so I would scurry into bed and pretend to be aleep. Sometimes I could have sworn I saw him peeping through the window to make sure I was tucked up in bed. Which is rediculous because my bedroom was on the second floor!

Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,
Up stairs and down stairs in his night-gown,
Tapping at the window, crying at the lock,
"Are the children in their bed, for it's past ten o'clock?"

"Hey, Willie Winkie, are you coming in?
The cat is singing purring sounds to the sleeping hen,
The dog's spread out on the floor, and doesn't give a cheep,
But here's a wakeful little boy who will not fall asleep!"

Anything but sleep, you rogue! glowering like the moon,
Rattling in an iron jug with an iron spoon,
Rumbling, tumbling round about, crowing like a cock,
Shrieking like I don't know what, waking sleeping folk.

"Hey, Willie Winkie - the child's in a creel!
Wriggling from everyone's knee like an eel,
Tugging at the cat's ear, and confusing all her thrums
Hey, Willie Winkie - see, there he comes!"

Weary is the mother who has a dusty child,
A small short little child, who can't run on his own,
Who always has a battle with sleep before he'll close an eye
But a kiss from his rosy lips gives strength anew to me.

Scary stuff for a kid!