|
|
|
 Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater
Peter Peter pumpkin eater,
Had a wife and couldn't keep her!
He put her in a pumpkin shell,
And there he kept her very well!"
History
The history of Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater rhyme
originates in America. Very recently this rhyme has become known to British
children as for most British children it has only just become clear exactly
what a pumpkin is! As it is not indigenous to the British shores the vast
majority of the British population has never eaten pumpkin! The American
tradition of dressing up for Halloween and the subsequent use of the pumpkin
for making lanterns together with 'Trick or Treat' has only reached our shores
a few years ago.
About the Rhyme
Another verse of unverified origin :
Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,
Had another and didn't love her;
Peter learned to read and spell,
And then he loved her very well.
The rhymes has two popular interpretations:
1. The First interpretation of Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater says:
Rhyme is about a man named Peter who loved to eat pumpkin.
He had a wife but he
couldn't keep her for some reason - probably neglected
her. So he stuffs her into a pumpkin shell and keeps her permanently in there.
Now, the turning point- he forgets about the first wife. Soon after that,
Peter gets married to another lady whom he didn't love at first. Peter who
was also illiterate eventually learns to read and finally starts to love his
wife - from the second marriage.
2. The Second interpretation of Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater says:
Peter was a poor man who had an unfaithful wife. She kept cheating on him.
So he had to find a way to stop her running around. His solution, fairly
common in the middle ages, was a chastity belt (pumpkin shell).
For those who don’t know, a chastity belt is roughly a pair of metal
underwear with lock and key, so that no one could enter the private region
of the woman except whoever held the key, usually her husband. And as the
rhyme goes, once he put her in that belt, he kept her very well.
|
