Itsy bitsy spider went up the waterspout

Origins of

‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’ first appeared in publications in the early 1900s. It was published with alternative lyrics, to those which are popular today, in Camp and Camino in Lower California in 1910. In this publication, it was referred to as ‘Spider Song.’  This version of the text was a little more explicit than a reader might be used to. Rather than using the phrase “itsy bitsy “the words were “blooming, bloody.” The words were later changed to make it more child-friendly. Additionally, the spider was climbing within its own web rather than up a waterspout. This simple change is interesting to consider. Why, in following versions, is the spider climbing up a waterspout?

The lyrics to Camp and Camino in Lower California version went as follows: 

Oh, the blooming, bloody spider went up the spider web,

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.

Other versions of the song refer to the spider as “Incey Wincy,” rather than “Itsy Bitsy,” such as in Australia and Great Britain. Alternatively, the waterspout is sometimes the spout of a teapot. 

More versions were published over the next 40 years and one of the modern versions appeared in Western Folklore by the California Folklore Society in 1948 another was published in American Folk Songs for children that same year.

One version of the contemporary lyrics are as follows: 

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.

Analysis of

As with most nursery thymes, ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’ has a very structured rhyme scheme. The lines follow a pattern of ABACBB. The repeating ‘B’ sound provides a line of unity that runs through the short six lines song. Additionally, the use and reuse of the word “rain” at the end of lines two and five is a great example of repetition. Just as the spider is forced to climb up and is washed back down again so too does is rain appear at the beginning of the poem and then again at the end. 

There are a few other techniques that this version of the text makes use of. For instance lines two, four and six all begin with the word “and.” This is known as anaphora. It is a technique in which a word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of multiple lines either in succession or not. It also helps create a rhythmic repetition to the words. This makes them more fun to hear and more fun to say out loud. 

The meter of the text is also fairly structured. Line two and four both contain six syllables. Lines three and five contains six.  Finally, lines one and six contain almost double, at 14. The coordination of the syllables in these lines is not a coincidence. It’s vastly important within nursery rhymes that there are enough elements to attract and hold a child’s attention. The sound should also be soothing enough, but remain interesting.

Popularization

Since its first publication and the solidification of its lyrics, ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’  has become one of the most popular nursery rhymes. Its popularity is proven through its almost universally recognition of its appearance in vastly different kinds of media. It can be heard in The Simpsons, South Park, Dora the Explorer, Criminal Minds and even a Series of Unfortunate Events. Dozens of musical renditions of the song have been recorded. Additionally, the song has been translated into innumerable languages and performed in many different cultures. The melody appears, with different words and other non-English-speaking countries as well. 

Finger Play 

Something that makes this song particularly interesting, and has helped with its popularity is the finger play that goes along with the singing of the song. For example when one sings the part about the water washing the spider out in line three the singer, generally if performing the song for or with a child, sweeps their hands’ back-and-forth, mimicking the movement of the water. Then later on in the song, when the spider climbs up the spout again the performer usually wiggles their fingers upward as if the spider is climbing up the spout.

These finger movements were originally introduced to the song in order to keep a child’s attention and to help them work on their locomotive skills

Interpretation

Because there is no clear writer of this particular nursery rhyme many lovers of poetry, song, and children’s literature have sought to interpret the lines in different ways. One of the most common interpretations is that the poem is an allegory. This is a piece of text that has a hidden meaning, usually moral or political.

In this case, some consider the spider and its frustrating climb up and quick descent down the waterspout represents the struggle of the lower classes. The waterspout itself has come to represent, for some, success. The poem can be read into further.  One could find meaning for the rain, as any force trying to keep the poor down, and the sun, as a kind of hope, false or real, always taunting or inspiring the spider to continue its climb.

About Emma Baldwin

Spiders. Ivan Sokolov-Mikitov

one summer I picked a small bouquet of wild flowers near our house - bluebells, buttercups, daisies and a simple gray porridge. I put the bouquet on the desk. A tiny azure spider crawled out of the bouquet, very similar to a living precious stone. The spider crawled from flower to flower, and I admired it for a long time. He either hesitantly descended to the very table on his invisible cobweb, then, as if frightened, he quickly got up. I offered my hand, and, touching it, the spider tightly tucked its paws in, pretended to be dead, completely became like a round precious stone rolling on my palm. I planted it on a bouquet of flowers and soon forgot about the azure spider.

I went about my business. The bouquet of wild flowers on my table withered. I had to replace it with fresh flowers.

The tiny spider, it turned out, stayed in my log room. Sitting at work, I once saw a familiar azure spider descend from the ceiling on a thin, thin invisible cobweb, sorting through with greenish legs. He then rose, like a skilled acrobat, on his invisible cobweb, then quickly descended, swaying over my manuscript. Since then, I have often seen an azure spider in my room. He came down over my table and I told him:

- Hello buddy, good morning!

I have always watched spiders with curiosity: I liked these hardworking forest hunters-masters. You used to go, in the early hour of a quiet summer morning, into the forest to hunt and stop: such a wonderful web is hung on green branches, on stalks of tall grasses - all in diamond sparkling drops of morning dew. For a long time you admire the wonderful thin lace woven by a skilled spider master. The master spider himself sits in the center of his web, patiently, like a real hunter-fisherman, waiting for prey to fall into his web: a shrill mosquito or a biting evil fly. He quickly rushes to the prey, tying it with his web.

Many years ago I lived in a remote village in Smolensk, surrounded by large forests that I knew well from childhood. Then I hunted a lot, I was strong and healthy, I liked to spend the nights in the forest by the hunting fire. I listened to the voices of birds and animals, I knew well the places where a lot of game was found - forest and marsh. In summer and winter, he hunted wolves that lived in deaf, impassable swamps; in spring, he went to grouse and capercaillie currents;

Wandering through the forests with a gun, I carefully looked at the mysterious forest life, little known to inexperienced city people. Every morning I saw the sun rise over the forest, listened to the happy birds greet the sunrise in a friendly chorus. At night I looked at the high starry sky, listened to the wonderful quiet music of the early dawn.

In the forest, I sometimes collected strange roots that looked like fabulous birds and animals, and put them in my bag along with hunting prey. The walls of my little rustic room were upholstered inside with spruce bark, very similar to expensive embossed leather. On the walls hung my guns, hunting equipment, outlandish forest finds, beautiful and tidy bird nests.

In the late summer, when I went hunting every day, I put empty matchboxes in my pockets. In these boxes I collected the most skilled spider-masters that I liked from the forest. When I returned from hunting, I released them in my room. The spiders quickly ran to the corners. Some of them stayed with me to live, others left somewhere. On the ceiling and in the corners of the room hung wonderful fresh silver cobwebs.

The guests who came to me marveled at my dwelling, shrugged. My small room looked like a forest museum, like a forest fairy-tale hut. Of course, I didn’t have a dusty, neglected web. My spider tenants diligently hunted for dirty flies, for annoying mosquitoes. I could work quietly, sleep peacefully: my spider friends guarded me.

A lot can be said about spiders. There are master spiders and hunters. There are spiders - swift runners. There are tiny pilot spiders that fly through the air on long cobwebs released from the abdomen: like real paratroopers and glider pilots, they fly over large spaces, fly over wide rivers. There are diving spiders. These spiders descend underwater to the bottom of shallow forest streams. Instead of a space suit, they carry a large bubble of air on their abdomen, which they breathe underwater. In hot countries, there are also evil, poisonous spiders, the bite of which is sometimes fatal.

Spiders are very good at predicting the weather. You used to go for mushrooms - a long viscous web sticks to your face, to your hands. This means that clear, good weather has been established for a long time. At the end of summer, meadows that have not yet been mowed are completely covered with the finest web of cobwebs. A countless army of little spiders worked here.

One early autumn I had to sail on a steamboat along the lower Volga. The shores were painted with an autumn color pattern.

I remember that early in the morning I went on deck and gasped in surprise. Above the motionless surface of the Volga, a light web, illuminated by the rising sun over the Volga, floated and floated. A light, golden cobweb, as if woven from the air, covered the entire ship: white deck posts, wooden handrails, gratings, benches. The passengers had not yet woken up, and, standing on the deck of the ship, I alone admired the fabulous spectacle of the cobweb floating over the Volga, illuminated by the morning sun.

Many people, especially women, are afraid and dislike spiders. They scream loudly if a spider crawls over a dress or bare arm, open their eyes wide, and wave their arms.

Old pious grandmothers, I remember, told us in childhood like this:

- If you kill a cross-spider, forty sins will be forgiven!

Spiders are always called cruel, evil, greedy people. Comparison of unkind people with industrious clean craftsmen and hunters skillfully weaving their beautiful nets is unfair.

Young friends! If you see a web hung by a spider in the forest, do not break it. Take a good look at how cleverly and diligently the industrious spider hunter hangs his nets and learn something from him.

ENTERTAINING ENTOMOLOGY. UNDERWATER BELL, OR ABOUT THE SILVER SPIDER

INTERESTING ENTOMOLOGY

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Nikolai Nikolaevich Plavilshchikov (1892-1962) - Doctor of Biological Sciences, popularizing entomologist, author of twenty popular science books.

Silver spider and his air bell.

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Nikolai Nikolaevich Plavilshchikov (1892-1962) - a graduate of the natural department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University, a zoologist specializing in beetles, doctor of biological sciences, professor. For many years he worked at the Zoological Museum of the University, collected insects, wrote several textbooks, manuals, guides on biology and entomology, and was the scientific editor of the journal "Young Naturalist".

For readers of different ages, Nikolai Nikolaevich wrote two dozen popular science books and brochures, including: "The Life of the Pond", "For Young Nature Lovers", "Homunculus: Sketches from the History of Biology" and others. His last work, "Entertaining Entomology", was very warmly received by critics and readers.

In his books, Plavlshchikov is not intrusive and not edifying: in order to observe more closely the "miracles" of living nature, he invites the reader to a meadow and a pond, a forest and a field, a vegetable garden and a wasteland, along the way telling a lot of useful and interesting things, offering inquisitive to do affordable and instructive experiments at home.

Of course, not all the observations and experiments of the popularizing scientist, which he could tell the general reader about, are described in his books. Many amazing experiments remained outside the scope of the works, for example, a successful experiment in transplanting the head of a woodcutter beetle into the place of the head of a dung beetle and vice versa, carried out back in the pre-war years in order to study the compatibility of organs.

Over the past 25-30 years, excellent scientific and educational books about insects by domestic and foreign authors have been published in Russia: V. Grebennikov, M. Kozlov, P. Marikovsky, V. Murzin, N. Shcherbinovsky, K. Frisch, and earlier - I. Vasilyev, D. Panfilov, Y. Stekolnikov, I. Khalifman, M. Mult, R. Hedstrom and, of course, A. Fabre, the favorite author of Nikolai Nikolayevich. However, "Entertaining Entomology" was not lost among them. It has also been published abroad.

We offer readers an essay from Plavilshchikov's book; it is printed with slight abbreviations.

YU. MOROZOV.

UNDERWATER BELL, OR ABOUT THE SILVER SPIDER

Spiders are land dwellers. The water spider is an exception to the rule: it spends most of its time underwater.

This spider has several names, and each of them marks some of its characteristic features: "water spider", "dropsy" - the spider really lives in the water; "silver" - in the water the spider looks like silver. One could call dropsy and "diving spider".

The appearance of dropsy is ordinary, spidery. Deep interception divides its body into two parts: the cephalothorax and abdomen. On the thoracic part of the cephalothorax there are four pairs of legs, as always with spiders. In the head part, in front, the jaws and long palps are visible. Dropsy is modestly colored: dark brown, sometimes with a reddish or olive tint. Abdomen densely covered with fine black hairs*.

The water spider is not so small: as an adult, it reaches 12-18 millimeters in length. Usually, in spiders, females are much larger than males; in dropsy, on the contrary, the male is larger than the female. The female differs from the male not only in size: her abdomen is lighter, and most importantly - rounder, less elongated than that of the male.

One should not observe the life of dropsy sitting on the shore of a pond: it is difficult to see what is happening there, in thickets of underwater plants. Yes, and follow the dropsy need not an hour or two. If you want to see something interesting, bring dropsy home.

It's not that hard to get dropsy. She lives in stagnant waters - in ponds, lakes. You will find it in almost any body of water, if there were underwater plants in it. You can sit on the shore and wait for a spider to emerge: dropsy, no, no, and it appears on the surface of the water. And then - quickly bring a gauze net under the spider.

Or you can just catch a spider blindly and then you can even do without a net. A sieve and a jar are all that is needed for such a hunt. True, you have to enter the water.

Once in a sieve or net, dropsy immediately "shows itself": it runs in it. Carefully take it out and put it in a jar, tie up the jar and bring the prey home as soon as possible.

Like many inhabitants of stagnant water, dropsy is not picky, and it is not difficult to keep it at home. A glass jar or a small aquarium (half a bucket of water, or less) is quite enough room for it. Put a layer of cleanly washed river sand on the bottom. Plant a few bushes of aquatic plants in the sand, at least the usual elodea. Pour two-thirds of the water into the jar, preferably taken from the same pond where dropsy was caught. Let a duckweed or a small piece of wood float on the water: sometimes the spider needs to sit on the "island". Just in case, tie the jar with gauze (an aquarium with a metal frame and even more so). That's all the hassle of arranging housing for dropsy.

Small water crustaceans - daphnia and larger crustaceans - water donkeys, similar to skinny wood lice, serve as food for dropsy. Catches dropsy and small water larvae.

Under water the appearance of dropsy immediately changes: the spider shines like silver or a drop of mercury. Such does dropsy the air covering her abdomen. Carrying a supply of air with it, the spider can breathe underwater. Air is retained by hairs on the abdomen of dropsy.

Openings of the respiratory organs are placed on the underside of the abdomen: air - lung - sacs and tracheal tubes. Air enveloping the abdomen penetrates these openings. Having organs air dropsy can stay under water for a long time and breathe as if she were on land.

An air bubble is one of the signs to distinguish between a male and a female. In the female, air covers the entire abdomen from above; in the male, the upper side of the abdomen in front of is not covered with air: there are no hairs here. This difference is easy to spot.

Dropsy released into the aquarium soon starts building an underwater dwelling.

Like other spiders, dropsy has arachnoid warts at the end of the abdomen. A sticky liquid is released from them, quickly hardening both in air and in water. This is how thin cobwebs are formed.

Among aquatic plants, a spider stretches out several cobwebs. Then weaves a braid from the web - a kind of flat canopy or canopy. This is the basis of the building.

The spider will now start scurrying up and down. Having risen to the surface of the water, it exposes the tip of the abdomen. Dressed in an air bubble, dropsy descends to his building. Here she weaves the first bubble of air into the cobweb canopy and goes to get another portion.

Spider lets further bubbles under the canopy, touching the first bubble. With each walk of the spider, the air bubble grows. It sticks out the web, and the flat canopy gradually takes the form of a dome.

The spider reinforces the walls of the dome with new cobwebs, adds and adds air. In the end, an underwater air bell is obtained. It is the size of a thimble, or even the size of a pigeon's egg, and even larger, depending on the size of the spider.

Dropsy rests and eats in its underwater dwelling. Here she sits, waiting for prey. Spider webs are stretched from the bell in all directions. It is worth the water donkey to touch one of them, and the spider, which felt the shock of the thread, runs out of the bell.

Like all spiders, dropsy does not swallow solid food: it sucks in liquefied, semi-digested food. She cannot eat in water: water dilutes the digestive juices, washes them away. Lunch in an underwater bell is no different from eating on land: air surrounds the spider.

By destroying an old bell, dropsy can be made to build and build new bells. Only one thing needs to be remembered: a healthy and well-fed spider builds a bell well. A starving spider will not only not build a new bell, it will not take care of the old one either: it will not repair it, will not add air to it. You need to feed dropsy well.

If you're lucky, you can see how dropsy multiplies. It is not always possible to achieve this "by order", but it is worth a try. The simplest thing is to catch several females in the middle of summer. The more females caught, the more likely that at least one of them will be with fertilized eggs. The inconvenience of this method is that it is dangerous to keep several females in one aquarium: the weak ones can be the prey of the stronger ones.

For eggs, the female dropsy alters her bell: she lines its upper part with a loose cobweb. This is where the spider lays several dozen, sometimes up to one and a half hundred eggs. The eggs are then separated from the rest of the bell by a web flap. Now the bell consists of two parts: a room for eggs and a living chamber.

The female stays in the bell and guards the eggs. She does not eat anything at this time and leaves the bell only to add air to it, to strengthen its walls with new cobwebs.

After ten days, tiny spiders appear. They don't have body hair yet, they can't swim. For a week, the spiders sit in the bell. And when they finally leave it, the air of the bell will cover their belly with a thin layer. Shiny dots will scatter from the empty bell.

Dropsy sleeps in winter. It is understandable: the ice crust draws in water, and the spider loses access to air.

For wintering, dropsy builds a special bell with very strong walls. Often she hibernates in an empty shell of a water snail: a pond snail, a coil, a lawn. Finding an empty shell, the spider weaves a cobweb cocoon inside it, filling it with air.

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