Itsy Bitsy Spider

"The Itsy Bitsy Spider"
"The Itsy Bitsy Spider"
	"Itsy Bitsy Spider" singing game
Nursery rhyme
Written	16 April 1909
Published	1910
Composer(s)	Arthur Walbridge North
Lyricist(s)	unknown value

"The Itsy Bitsy Spider" (also known as "The Incey Wincey Spider (or The Eensy Weensy Spider)" in Australia or "Incy Wincy Spider" in the United Kingdom, and other anglophone countries) is a popular nursery rhyme, folksong, and fingerplay that describes the adventures of a spider as it ascends, descends, and re-ascends the downspout or "waterspout" of a gutter system or, alternatively, the spout of a teapot, or open-air reservoir. It is usually accompanied by a sequence of gestures that mimic the words of the song. Its Roud Folk Song Index number is 11586.

Lyrics

A commonly used version uses these words and gestures:

Words	Fingerplay
The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the waterspout. Down came the rain And washed the spider out. Out came the sun And dried up all the rain And the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again.	Alternately touch the thumb of one hand to the index finger of the other. Hold both hands up and wiggle the fingers as the hands are lowered. Sweep the hands from side to side. Raise both hands and sweep to the sides to form a semicircle as the sun. Wiggle fingers upwards. (As in the first line)

Other versions exist.

Origin

The origin for the song is unknown. It was first published in musical publications, such as the earliest known recorded version in the book Camp and Camino in Lower California, A Record of The Adventures of The Author While Exploring Peninsular California, Mexico (1910), by Arthur Walbridge North (1874–1943), page 279-280, where it is referred to as (the classic) "The Spider Song". It appears to be a more adult version of this song using "blooming, bloody" instead of "itsy bitsy". Another printed versions appeared in Camp and Trail (1911), Camp Fire Land Girls (1916), Journal of American Folklore (1920), California Melodies (1920), California Center of the National Nature (1920), Campward Ho! A Manual for Girl Scout Camps (1920), and The Light Guitar (1923). It was later published in one of its song's several modern versions in Western Folklore for children, by the California Folklore Quarterly (1946), California Folklore Society (1947), Camp N'Things (1947), Mike, Peggy, and Ruth Crawford Seeger's American Folk Songs for Children (1948/1977), and in The Growing Family : A Guide for Parents by Maxwell Slutz Stewart (1955). The most commonly referenced first published version was in 1962.

Lyrics as they were originally found in a book, which was as the 'classic' "The Spider Song" Original lyrics c. 1910:

Oh, the blooming, bloody spider went up the spider web, (or waterspout)
The blooming, bloody rain came down and washed the spider out,
The blooming, bloody sun came out and dried up all the rain,
And the blooming, bloody spider came up the web again.

A slightly earlier version recorded in a sheet music in 1909 in Indiana from a college commencement more closely resembles the most common modern version:

There was a blooming spider
Went up a blooming spout,
And down came the rain
And washed the spider out;
Out came the sun
And dried up all the rain,
But that bloody blooming son of a gun
Went up that spout again.

A similar ribald verison featuring a bloody sparrow instead of a spider was recorded on December 15, 1879 issue in a London magazine The Pearl which goes like this:

He was a bloody sparrow
Lived up a bloody spout
There came a bloody thunderstorm
And washed the bugger out!
But in a bloody minute,
They stopped the bloody rain;
So the bloody little sparrow
Went up the spout again.

The song later appeared in publications such as The Purple and White at Millsaps College (1909) Proceedings of the ... Convention of the Indiana Sanitary and Water Supply Association (1912), Howard University Program (1912), Camp Fire Girls (1912), The Oregon Teachers Monthly (1912), The Chautauquan (1912), The Shadow (Stringer) (1913), Baltimore and Ohio Employees Railroad Company Magazine (1913) and Variety (August 1926). A version appeared in Collier's magazine in December 1913 was describes as a "deathless Cockney lyric", while it printed some versions in the Los Angeles Graphic (October 18, 1913), Virginian-Pilot and the Norfolk Landmark - Volume 49 (November 3, 1913), Richmond Virginian - Volume 4 (November 6, 1913),Oklahoma Labor Unit (November 22, 1913), and The New York Sun (November 29, 1926). A reference to the bloody sparrow in this book called Reminiscences: Volume One, by John Orlando Hodge (1828-1912), published in 1902 attributing the poem to a MA is a Harry L. Veil, in Cleveland, Ohio. Also, it was printed in 1945 songbooks called Apples of Eden: A Private Collection of American Folk-Lore, and Mess Songs and Rhymes of the RAAF.

In Mahler's Symphony No. 4 (1901), Floros divides the movement into five main parts (A – B – A¹ – B¹ – A²) followed by a coda. The first theme in G major is played in the beginning of part A by the cellos, a version from 1901 goes like this:

Oh! the blooming blasted sparrow went up the oak tree,
The blooming, blasted rain came down and washed the sparrow out,
The blooming, blasted sun came out and dried up all the rain,
And the blooming, blasted sparrow came up the tree again!

Some historians think the rhyme may date back to a 1908 magazine The Children's Friend:

There was a bloody spider
Went up a bloody spout
There came the rain
And washed the spider out
The bloody sun
And dried up all the rain
But that bloody blooming son of a gun
Went up that spout again.

Later, versions of the spider-sparrow where printed in newspapers, magazines, journals, and books include The True Citizen (August 25, 1882), Brownstown Banner (August 10, 1882), Osgood Ripley County Journal (August 10, 1882), The Puget Sound Mail (August 12, 1882), Janesville Daily Gazette(September 12, 1882), Kunkel's Musical Review volume 05, number 11 (1882), Hickman courier (August 11, 1882), The Meredith Eagle (August 21, 1882), The Judge (July 26, 1884), The National Police Gazette (November 1, 1884), The New York Mirror (July 28, 1888), The Stamp World: Vol. V-VI (July 1889) The Atlanta Constitution (July 20, 1889), Columbus, Enquirer-Sun (July 21, 1889), Monroe Daily Independent (July 22, 1889), The Theatre - Volume 5 (1888-1889), The Griffin Daily News and Sun (August 18, 1889), Altoona Mirror Newspaper (August 31, 1889), Morris Tribune (October 2, 1889), Alleghany Tribune - Volume 4 (September 1, 1882), The Evening World (June 9, 1894), The American Slang Dictionary (1891), Hogwarts Legacy (1891), The Papyrus - Volume 1 (1907), Chance Hits (1915), National Floodmarks (1915), The Inside Track - Volumes 8-9 (1929), American Cattle Producer - Volume 5 (1924), Commerce and Finance - Volume 16 (1927), The Producer - Volumes 5-6 (1923), The Axe-thrower of the Tittabawassee (1935), The Merrill Studies in The Bridge (1970), The Autocar (1912), Odds and Ends of Prose and Verse (1902), Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News - Volume 28 (1914), The Santa Fe Magazine - Volume 34 (1939), California poems and selections (1916), University of Ottawa review (1902), The Gallovidian Annual (1932), The McGill Daily Vol. 04 No. 116: (March 6, 1915), Archon (1914), My hopes and my heroes;; [poems] (1903), The Bucks Village Boy (1994), My Colonial Service in British Guiana, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Fiji, Australia, Newfoundland, and Hong Kong, with Interludes - Volume 2 (1903), Current Politics, Literature, Science and Art - Volume 2 (1884), Republic of Dreams Greenwich Village: The American Bohemia (2007), America's war for humanity related in story and picture (1898), Birds of Lakeside and Prairie (1901), Birds and Nature (1914), Birds and Nature in Natural Colors (1914), Specimens of Type, Borders, Ornaments (1892), Demorest's Monthly Magazine - Volume 31 (1894), The Robert W. Gordon "Inferno" Collection (1928), The Anatomy of Swearing (1967), Navy & Army Illustrated - Volume 9 (1899), Winged Wonders: A Celebration of Birds in Human History (2007), The Letters of Thomasina Atkins (1918), Songs for Lions (1929), Verse and Verse (1930), Camp Management: A Manual for Camp Directors (1923), Billy Whiskers and the Radio (1927), Record of Proceedings of the Annual Meeting (1935), Pantaloons and Antics; Or, Doodling with a Hermes (1964), Foxes and Physic (1962), The Singing Street (1964), The Mary Ann Omnibus (1981), Poetry South Africa: Selected Papers from Poetry (1976), Against the Wall (1929), Midland Schools Official Organ of the Iowa State Education Association - Volume 25 (1910), Fuel Magazine: The Coal Operators National Weekly - Volume 17 (1911), Dixon Evening Telegraph (April 3, 1911), The Duluth Herald (December 8, 1913), Norwich Bulletin (July 31, 1902), Dartmouth Alumni Magazine (December 1964), Crimpville comments (February 1, 1979), Meayrs (May 1971), Bawdy Barrack-Room Ballads (Getz Collection, No 114) (1970), Poetry Please - A Little Culture For The Masses (1974), Forever and Anon (2007), and Gardeners Corner (1984) as "The bleedin' sparrer":

We ‘ad a bleedin’ sparrer wot
Lived up a bleedin’ spaht
One day the bleedin’ rain came dahn
An’ washed the bleeder aht.

An’ as 'e layed ‘arf drahnded
Dahn in the bleedin’ street
‘E begged that bleedin’ rainstorm
To bave ‘is bleedin’ feet.

But then the bleedin’ sun came aht
Dried up the bleedin’ rain
So that bleedin’ little sparrer
‘E climbs up ‘is spaht again.

But, Oh! - the cruel sparrer ‘awk
‘E spies ‘im in ‘is snuggery
‘E sharpens up ‘is bleedin’ claws
An’ rips ‘im aht by thuggery.

Jist then a bleedin’ sportin’ type
Wot ‘ad a bleedin’ gun
‘E spots that bleedin’ sparrer ‘awk
An’ blasts ‘is bleedin’ fun.

The moral of the story
Is plain to everyone...
That them wot’s up the bleedin’ spaht
Don’t get no bleedin’ fun.

Arnold Silcock included a parody in Cockney dialect, "The Bleed'n' Sparrer", in his 1952 compilation Verse and Worse.

British author Cathrine Cookson published a North East English version titled "The Bloomin Spuggy" in her 1985 book Harold.

The bloody sparrow variations can be found in aircraft fake songbooks and real magazines such as Fighter Pilots Songbook Black Widow Squadron (1963), 1960s Untitled Songbook [from Reeves] (1966), 354th Tactical Fighter Squadron Training Manual (1967), 46th Tactical Fighter Squadron Songbook (1970), and Flight International Magazine (January 19, 1922). It also appeared in films and albums such as The Hill (1965), White Pongo (1945), The Premonition (1976), Phantom of the Paradise (1974), The Lightship (1985), The Sailor's Return (1978), and Seven Ages: An Anthology of Poetry with Music Various Artists (1998).

One of the bloody-rooting spider references was founded in newspapers and books such as Cornell Countryman - Volumes 41-44 (1945), National Sportsman - Volume 77 (1937), and Blow the Candle Out (1955).

The Finland spider named, Hämä-hämä-häkki can be found in A.S. Packard, Jr.'s 1873 book Our Common Insects.

The song "静かな湖畔の森の影から" dates back to least as of 1936 by the YMCA in Lake Nojiri. It was also sung by fans at the National Sports Olympics in Tennessee as "The Bleeding Blooming Bloody Sparrow" on October 2, 1926.

The term "itsy-bitsy" originated in the late 19th century as a reduplicated baby-talk alteration of "little bit". The components "itty" (a variant of little) and "bitsy" (a variant of bit) first appeared in print independently in 1798, 1850, 1875, and 1883, respectively, eventually merging into the popular phrase by 1882.

The creaky sparrow version have founded in a 1780 book The Charles .

A version of a halloween sparrow was founded in an 1882 opera called The House of the Pumpkin Tree that premiered at the Niblo's Garden. The opera was particularly successfull, the halloween song survived and flourished, and versions can be heard in later ballad operas and musical theaters, including The Perfect Girl (1889), The Rage of the Mansion (1892), The Playhouse (1895), The Emergency (1897) and The Dancing Majors (1904).

The American electrical engineer J. J. Carty create a version in 1922 in The Bell System technical journal and the lyrics began with the following verse:

The bloody spider,
Went up a spout,
The bleeding rain came down,
Washed the spider out,
Out came the sun,
Dried up all the rain,
The bloody spider,
Went up that spout again.

A reference to the bloody sparrow in this Universal Weekly magazine published in 1925 attributing the poem to a Hollywood:

He was a bloody sparrow
Came up a bloody spout
There came a rain
Washed the buggy out
In a bloody sun,
They stopped the bloody rain;
The bloody little sparrow
Went up the spout again.

A creeky sparrow version was published in 1972 in Missouri reported said a guest suffered injuries when falling out of a ride vehicle in a Silver Dollar City ride Fire in the Hole reuses the version:

There was a creeky sparrow
Went up a creeky spout
The heavy rain came down
Washed the sparrow out
The sun came out
Dried up all the rain
The creeky sparrow
Went up that spout again.

Perhaps, the recorded version of the song, when guest suffered injuries when falling out of a ride vehicle, in a 1978 ride, Blazing Fury:

There was a bloody sparrow
Went up a blooming spout
The heavy rain came down
Washed the sparrow out
The sun came out
Dried up all the rain
The bloody sparrow
Went up that spout again.

These attractions where now sung by the town residents, passing by a (Collapsing Bridge) sequence with heavy rain falling in the 2nd verse after the collapsing. When a large section of track was removed in 1982, the cars exit the "Danger, Track out ahead" cliff, where the music can be heard in the old track player in the background. In December 1991, the music audio was now removed in it's two sister attractions.

This description is incomplete and based on a video that removed content that included copyrighted music. Look at soundtrack for more details on some of the exclusions.

Hail, Columbia

Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth. (Chopin)

Alouette

Spannenlanger Hansel

These songs uses the same tune of "Itsy Bitsy Spider".

The song is sung by and for children in countless languages and cultures. It is similar to the melodies (metric line) of the songs, "Hail, Columbia", "Chopin, Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. Posth", "Alouette", "Down by the Station", "Climbing Up the Golden Stairs", "Sweetly Sings the Donkey" in the United States, and "Auf der Mauer, auf der Lauer [de]" (1890), "Ich bin ein kleiner Esel" ("I'm a little donkey", the German-language version of "Sweetly Sings the Donkey") and "Spannenlanger Hansel [de]" (1838) (see: Hansel and Gretel) in German-speaking countries.

Score

Musical scores are temporarily disabled.

Source

Absurdist Metaphor, Claims, and Deaths

Some scholars view the lyrics as an Absurdist metaphor in the tradition of Albert Camus's interpretation of the Sisyphus myth. This idea is borne out somewhat by the structural similarity between the two stories; A hero attempts to reach a great height, only to be pushed down by Forces out of their control, represented by Nature or the gods.

There is a claim says that the rhyme is based on a song called “Tipsy Dipsy Hobo” and was a reference to the dangers of a person getting drunk and trying to climb on board or fall off trains during the American Civil War, and Great Depression, risking a fatal injury such as transportation, railroad crashing, and even collisions. Here are the lyrics:

The Tipsy Dipsy Hobo drinks from the lager spout

Here comes the train it knocks the hobo out

Out comes a man to pick up all the brains

But a Tipsy Dipsy Hobo drinks from the spout again.

There is no historical trace or credible source establishing the existence of a song called "Tipsy Dipsy Hobo" predating the nursery rhyme.

The "spout" represents a liquor bottle, the rain represents "getting washed out," and the sun is a sober spell before the alcoholic returns to the bottle. This is a modern, speculative interpretation found on blogs and internet forums with no historical documentation to back it up.

The spider represents the proletariat (working class), the waterspout is the American Dream, the rain represents the bourgeoisie holding them down, and the sun offers false hope. This satirical and analytical interpretation arose long after the song became popular and has no basis in the rhyme's early 20th-century origins.

In the early 14th century, Robert the Bruce was fighting a seemingly hopeless war for Scottish independence against King Edward I of England. After suffering six consecutive defeats, his army was scattered, and he was forced into hiding. Whiled lodged in a lonely cave (often said to be on Rathlin Island), deeply depressed and considering abandoning his cause, he noticed a small spider trying to spin a web. The spider attempted to swing from one area of the cave wall to another to fix its web. It failed six times in a row—matching the exact number of Bruce's defeats. Instead of giving up, the spider tried a seventh time and successfully anchored its thread. Inspired by the creature's refusal to quit, Bruce reportedly declared, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." He left the cave, rallied his men, and went on to win a major victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Historians view this as a myth. It does not appear in contemporary 14th-century records and was popularized centuries later, notably by the writer Sir Walter Scott in the 19th century.

The Itsy Bitsy spider was also known to be an extremely poisonous spider and any single bite could mean instant death, which means "YOU WILL DIE". One result refers to a 1941 Denver homicide in which 73‑year‑old Phillip Peters was found beaten to death in his locked home.

Legacy

The British broadcaster Wincey Willis (1948–2024) took her name from the nursery rhyme. Born Florence Winsome Leighton, she went by her middle name, Winsome; but at infant school her classmates started calling her Wincey after the nursery rhyme, and she retained this name in adult life.

References

Other websites

"Itsy Bitsy Spider".