As the song goes on, children are told what they should do to the leaves that fall, culminating in them jumping into the leaf pile and having lots of fun. The great thing about this rhyme is that there are no sinister messages, unlike other, traditional nursery rhymes.

This song is often sung in rounds to teach children about different parts of music. The bigger the group of children, the more rounds that can be sung and you can end up with an endless version that only stops when the last entrant to the round finishes their go.

Autumn Leaves Are Falling Down Lyrics

Autumn leaves are falling down
Falling down, falling down
Autumn leaves are falling down.
All around the town.
The wind will blow them round and round
Round and round, round and round.
The wind will blow them round and round
All around the town.
They’re drifting gently to the ground,
to the ground, to the ground.
They’re drifting gently to the ground.
All around the town.
Take a rake and rake them up,
Rake them up, rake them up.
Take a rake and rake them up
All around the town.

The use of the “Hath” instead of the modern “Has” leads us to think that the origins of this rhyme date back to the 16th century at least. Indeed, a variant of this popular rhyme first appeared in written form in 1577 when William Harrison, the priest referred to it as “Thirty dayes hath Nouember”.

“Thirty Days Hath September” Lyrics

Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November;
All the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting February alone.
Which only has but twenty-eight days clear
And twenty-nine in each leap year.

Alternative Versions

The early variation from 1577 is reproduced below:

Thirty dayes hath Nouember,
Aprill, Iune and September;
Twentie and eyght hath February alone,
And all the rest thirty and one,
But in the leape you must adde one.

There are other variations too, for example in “The Little Mother Goose” published in 1912 the lyrics are slightly different:

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one –
Except February, alone,
Which has four and twenty-four,
And every fourth year, one day more.

Solomon Grundy poem was first recorded in 1842 by nursery rhyme and fairy-tale collector James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps. The song was translated in different languages including French, German or Italian. Being very easy to memorize, Solomon Grundy is used as a tool to teach kids the days of the week.

Solomon Grundy Poem Meaning

The song is telling the story of Solomon Grundy, a man who, metaphorically, lives and dies his entire life in one single week. Born on Monday, each day of the week he is growing older facing a different stage of his life, and his life ends on Saturday.

Solomon Grundy born on a Monday, became a character of urban legends and comics. To scare children who are not wise, it is said that Solomon Grundy will return on Monday, in a similar way to a bogeyman.

There are many suggestions that Solomon Grundy phonetically derived from the food with the same name which is a pickled fish pâté, with salad and eggs.

The word for the English dish comes from the Salmagundi, an ingredient used in Solomon Grundy, originally a Jamaican mix of meat and salad, adapted into French Cuisine around the 17th century and then English cuisine around the 18th century.

Solomon Grundy Nursery Rhyme Lyrics

Solomon Grundy,
Born on a Monday,
Christened on Tuesday,
Married on Wednesday,
Took ill on Thursday,
Grew worse on Friday,
Died on Saturday,
Buried on Sunday.
That was the end,
Of Solomon Grundy.

Monday’s Child lyrics were first published in the second volume of “The Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy” (1836) “Traditions, legends, superstitions, and Sketches of Devonshire” (1838) by the British novelist Anna Eliza Bray.

Fortune-telling tradition is dating back to 1570’s England. The Sunday is missing in the song as that time it was referred to as Sabbath day. In the 1840s the song was included in James Orchard Halliwell’s book English Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales. In this version Sunday or Sabbath day was replaced with Christmas Day.

Each day’s prediction has varied over the years. For instance some superstitions considered Friday an unlucky day, while for Christians Good Friday is the commemoration of Jesus’s Crucifixion. Thus, the line “Wednesday’s child is full of woe” was once “Friday’s child is full of woe”.

However there are more than just one accepted versions of this nursery rhyme. Below are the lyrics of one of the most known versions sung today:

Monday’s Child Lyrics

Monday’s child is fair of face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursdays child has far to go,
Fridays child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for his living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay;