Polly Put the Kettle On is a nursery rhyme.
Molly Put the Kettle On or Jenny's Baubie was published by Joseph Dale. c. 1809-10. It was also printed, with Polly instead of Molly in Dublin about the same time. The melody is vaguely similar to Oh du lieber Augustin, which was published in Mainz in 1788-89. According to James J. Fuld's The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk (Dover, 1966/1995), Polly Put the Kettle on is derived from the Augustin song.
[Charles Dickens, 1812-1870]
Jenny's Bawbee was published by A Muffat in The Minstrelsy of Scotland by Augener (c 1914). In the form of a dance tune, Jenny's Baubee is in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum in 1797. In middle-class families in the mid-eighteenth century "Sukey" was equivalent to "Susan." The nursery rhyme is mentioned in Charles Dickens's Barnaby Rudge.
[Children and Adults of Wanseko, Uganda]
Children of Wanseko - Polly Put the Kettle On
Polly put the kettle on
Polly put the kettle on
Polly put the kettle on
We'll all have tea
Sukey take it off again
Sukey take it off again
Sukey take it off again
They've all gone away
The solfege is
Sol La Sol Fa Mi Re Do
Re Mi Re Do Ti La Sol (transposition, in key, down a fourth)
Sol La Sol Fa Mi Re Do Mi (repeat of first line, with variant)
La Ti Do (cadential phrase)
[8770 Beethoven / 8767 Johnson / 8756 W.A. Mozart]
