Toe in the Water

Miss Polly

Miss Polly

I had cause this morning to look up the words to the nursery rhyme, Miss Polly Had a Dolly. To my surprise, I found that the British version has one small but significant difference from the American. Here’s the version Google knows:

Miss Polly had a dolly who was sick, sick, sick
And she called for the doctor to come quick, quick
The doctor came with his bag and his hat
And he knocked at the door with a rat-a-tat-tat

He looked at the dolly and he shook his head
And he said, "Miss Polly, put her straight to bed"
He wrote on a paper for a pill, pill, pill
I'll be back in the morning if the baby's still ill

The only difference in the Brit poem is in the last line, which goes:

I'll be back in the morning with my bill bill bill

Apart from the facts that the words hark back to an earlier time when doctors still travelled to the patient, and that the poem’s origins are shrouded in mystery, reality insists that I prefer the British version.


Word count: 184