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Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Words by Jane Taylor

Takes about:
2 minutes to sing
Good for:
In the bump, Newborn, Baby, Toddler
Tune:
The French tune “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman” (about 1761)

A smiling yellow star peeps in through a nursery window between pink curtains, with a sleepy teddy on the windowsill and the top of a cot below.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are! Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky.

When the blazing sun is gone, When he nothing shines upon, Then you show your little light, Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Then the trav’ller in the dark, Thanks you for your tiny spark: He could not see which way to go, If you did not twinkle so.

In the dark blue sky you keep, And often through my curtains peep, For you never shut your eye Till the sun is in the sky.

As your bright and tiny spark Lights the trav’ller in the dark, Though I know not what you are, Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

Where it comes from

Jane Taylor wrote these words in 1806, as a poem called “The Star”. It was in Rhymes for the Nursery, a book of poems for children by Jane and her sister Ann. The book sold so well that it was on its twenty-third edition by 1831, the printing these words come from.

The tune is older still: a French melody, “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman”, in print by about 1761. Mozart wrote a set of piano variations on it. By 1838 a music book for schools, W. E. Hickson’s The Singing Master, was printing Jane Taylor’s words to the French tune, and they have been sung together ever since. It’s the same tune as “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” and the alphabet song.

Most people only know the first verse. The fourth one, where the star peeps through your curtains, is a lovely one to sing in a dark nursery.

Old words

  • trav’ller: traveller, squeezed into two beats so it fits the tune.
  • keep (“in the dark blue sky you keep”): stay, or live.
  • peep: take a quick look.
  • spark: a tiny point of light.

How to sing it

  • Slow it right down. Sung softly and slowly, it’s a lullaby; sung brightly, it’s a nursery rhyme.
  • For a toddler, open and close your hands for “twinkle, twinkle”, and point up for “up above the world so high”.
  • Try singing the first verse again at the end, more and more quietly.

Where these words come from

Public domain. Words by Jane Taylor, first published as “The Star” in Rhymes for the Nursery (1806), which she wrote with her sister Ann. Text from the twenty-third edition of Rhymes for the Nursery (London: Harvey and Darton, 1831), as transcribed by Project Gutenberg (eBook #77549). Original source

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