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Six Little Mice Nursery Rhyme

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Overview

In this article, we will talk about the poem or nursery rhyme “Six Little Mice”. We will first briefly talk about the origin and introduction to the poem and what it is about then we will see the Six Little Mice Lyrics and lastly, end our discussion by discussing briefly what rhyming schemes and rhyming words mean and the rhyming scheme of the poem that we are discussing. The key takeaways from this article are:

  • Six Little Mice 

  • Six Little Mice Rhyme

Six Little Mice Rhyme: An Introduction

Six Little Mice is a very popular and well-known nursery poem. Its original version first made its appearance  in Harry’s Ladder to Learning back in 1850. But it gained its maximum popularity through the very famous author Beatrix Potter who is the author of some very loved books like “Peter Rabbit” and “The Tailor of Gloucester”.


He made the illustrations of the poem, which were well received by the target audience, which was the children. However, in this illustration, rather than six, only three little mice were leading to the birth of the new and the latest version of the poem, which includes only three mice. 


Six Little Mice Poem

Now in this section lets state the Six Little Mice Lyrics:


Six little mice sat down to spin,

Pussy passed by and she peeped in.

What are you at, my fine little men?

Making coats for gentlemen.

Shall I come in and cut off your threads?

Oh, no, Miss Pussy, you’d bite off our heads!



Six Little Mice

Six Little Mice


Six Little Mice Illustration


Six Little Mice Illustration


Six Little Mice Rhyme

In this section, let us discuss the rhyme scheme of our poem, “Six Little Mice”:

The Rhyme Scheme of any poem in consideration can be defined as an orderly pattern of rhyming words at the end of each line of the poem, it can be of different types like for example aaaa, this implies that all the four lines of the verse rhyme with each other.


Now, you may also ask, what do we really mean by rhyming words. Rhyming words are simply words which are similar sounding when pronounced, for example, cat and mat.

 

Example of Rhyme Schemes: abab


Example of Rhyme Schemes: abab


In the poem, “Six Little Mice”, the rhyming scheme, as we can tell, is aabbcc, that is, ending words of every two lines rhyme with each other: spin and in, men and gentlemen and finally threads and heads.


Sample Questions 

State whether the statements mentioned below are correctly stated or not:

1. The older version of the poem had six mice whereas the newer version has only three. 

Ans: True. 

2. In the poem Six Little Mice, the mice are working on the wheel.

Ans: True.

3. In the poem, the mice are not afraid of the cat. 

Ans: False, as mentioned in the poem the mice are indeed scared of the cat as they know that the cat if it enters inside will eat their head off, that is why they ask the cat to leave. 


Summary 

In this article, we first discussed the origin of the poem “Six Little Mice” which gained popularity after its illustration was created by Beatrix Potter as a new version with only three mice. That is how the new and the most latest version of the poem and how it is known now was born. Then we stated the Six Little Mice lyrics followed by commenting on the rhyming scheme used in the poem. We also talked briefly about what we mean by the rhyming schemes and rhyming words. 

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FAQs on Six Little Mice Nursery Rhyme

1. What were the mice doing?

The opening scene of the poem shows the six little mice, here we find out that the mice are working on the wheel that is they are seen spinning the wheel.

2. Explain some more types of rhyming schemes with examples.

There are a lot of different types of rhyming schemes which are used in different poems. Some of them are: 

  • abab

This image shows Example of abab Rhyme Scheme.


Example of abab Rhyme Scheme


  • abba


This image shows Example of abba Rhyme Scheme


Example of abba Rhyme Scheme


  • abcd

This image shows Example of abcd Rhyme Scheme


Example of abcd Rhyme Scheme

3. Do you think the mice mentioned in the poem given above were nice or not nice?

The mice mentioned in the poem  can be considered nice mice because they are working hard on the wheel and they do answer the cat and later they do turn the cat away but it's just because they are actually scared of the cat biting their head off. Thus, we can conclude that the mice mentioned in the poem are quite nice and hardworking.


Overview

In this article, we will talk about the poem or nursery rhyme “Six Little Mice”. We will first briefly talk about the origin and introduction to the poem and what it is about then we will see the Six Little Mice Lyrics and lastly, end our discussion by discussing briefly what rhyming schemes and rhyming words mean and the rhyming scheme of the poem that we are discussing. The key takeaways from this article are:

  • Six Little Mice 

  • Six Little Mice Rhyme