What Are Little (Girls)Boys Made of? The Entire Nursery Rhyme

We all know the popular nursery rhyme. I believed it’s titled depending on the gender of the child. We have to remember this was written in a different day than our own.

Although, I knew the nursery rhyme but never used it in child rearing and after learning all of it. I’m glad I didn’t.

In my opinion, it doesn’t help that other versions of the poem (usually attributed to the 19th century British poet Robert Southey) substitute “slugs” or “snakes” for “snips,” or that some scholars think that the phrase was originally “snips of snails.” Ragged bits of slimy snails and stinky dogs’ tails.

What Are Little Girls Made of?

What are little boys made of?
What are little boys made of?
Frogs and snails,
And puppy-dogs’ tails;
That’s what little boys are made of.

What are little girls made of?
What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice,
And all that’s nice;
That’s what little girls are made of.

Here’s a long version of What Are Little Girls Made of? as found in The Baby’s Opera by Walter Crane (circa 1877):

1. What are little boys made of?
What are little boys made of?
Frogs and snails and puppy-dog’s tails,
And that are little boys made of.

Some version says: snips, snails and puppy dog tails. I have also seen it written: snakes, snails and puppy dog tails.

(That’s a terrible thing to tell your little boy!)

2. What are little girls made of?
What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice and all that’s nice,
And that are little girls made of.

Some version says: Sugar and spice and everything nice,

3. What are young men made of?
What are young men made of?
Sighs and leers, and crocodile tears,
And that are young men made of.

4. What are young women made of?
What are young women made of?
Ribbons and laces, and sweet pretty faces,
And that are young women made of.

We can look back and see how these early nursery rhymes still influence us today.

About unholypursuit

A. White, an award winning former librarian, who is also a long time member of Romantic Time and Publisher's Weekly. A. White has been writing for over fifteen years. She took classes in creative writing in college, specializing in ancient myths and legends. and later at a local community center while living in Chicago. In college she won the national contest to verbally list every country in the world, it's capital and ingenious language. Her works are mainly horror, fantasy, extreme, and sci-fi as well as, as some may says, "the truly strange predicament and puzzling." Books that I've written are "Clash with the Immortals, and eleven others which are part of the "Unholy Pursuit saga,". She has been working on the Chronicles since 2007. She wished to complete them all before introducing them to public so the readers wouldn't have to for the continuation to be written. The ideas of the book come from classic literature such as whose work greatly influence the world world such as Homer, Sophocles, Herodotus, Euripides, Socrates, Hippocrates, Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle and many more. The "Book of Enoch" influenced the usage of Azazael as a main character and love interest. I created the primary main character from the Chronicle of Saints. I wanted to show them as real flesh and blood with thoughts, desires and yearning as any human. Not as they are so often depicted. So I created one of my own to show her as a real human that everyone can relate to.

View all posts by unholypursuit →