Mary had a Little lamb - wikipedia Mary had a Little lamb This article is about the nursery rhyme. For other uses, see Mary Had a Little Lamb ( disambiguation ). `` Mary Had a Little Lamb '' Illustration by William Wallace Denslow Nursery rhyme Published May 24, 1830 Songwriter ( s ) Sarah Josepha Hale, John Roulstone `` Mary Had a Little Lamb '' is an English language nursery rhyme of the early nineteenth - century American origin. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7622. Contents 1 Background 2 Text 3 Influence 4 Media 5 Uses of the music 6 See also 7 References Background The Redstone School ( 1798 ), now in Sudbury, Massachusetts, is believed to be the schoolhouse mentioned in the nursery rhyme. The nursery rhyme was first published by the Boston publishing firm Marsh, Capen & Lyon, as a poem by Sarah Josepha Hale on May 24, 1830, and was possibly inspired by an actual incident. There are competing theories on the origin and inspiration of this poem. One holds that John Roulstone wrote the first four lines and that the final twelve lines, less childlike than the first, were composed by Sarah Josepha Hale ; others claim that Hale was responsible for the entire poem. As a young girl, Mary Sawyer ( later Mary Tyler ) kept a pet lamb that she took to school one day at the suggestion of her brother. A commotion naturally ensued. Mary recalled : `` Visiting school that morning was a young man by the name of John Roulstone, a nephew of the Reverend Lemuel Capen, who was then settled in Sterling. It was the custom then for students to prepare for college with ministers, and for this purpose Roulstone was studying with his uncle. The young man was very much pleased with the incident of the lamb ; and the next day he rode across the fields on horseback to the little old schoolhouse and handed me a slip of paper which had written upon it the three original stanzas of the poem... '' Mary Sawyer 's house, located in Sterling, Massachusetts, was destroyed by arson on August 12, 2007. A statue representing Mary 's Little Lamb stands in the town center. The Redstone School, which was built in 1798, was purchased by Henry Ford and relocated to a churchyard on the property of Longfellow 's Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Text In the 1830s, Lowell Mason set the nursery rhyme to a melody adding repetition in the verses, starting with `` Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb, Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow. Influence This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( May 2017 ) William Wallace Denslow 's illustrations for Mary had a little lamb, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose The rhyme was the first audio recorded by Thomas Edison on his newly invented phonograph in 1877. It was the first instance of recorded verse. In 1927, Edison reenacted the recording, which still survives. The earliest recording ( 1878 ) was retrieved by 3D imaging equipment in 2012. Blues musicians Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray Vaughan both recorded the song : Guy composing his own bluesy version of the song for his album A Man and the Blues in 1968 and Vaughan covering Guy 's version in his 1983 debut album, Texas Flood, with both also infusing the first four lines of the nursery rhyme, `` A-Tisket, A-Tasket '', into the song. In 1972, Paul McCartney released a version of the song. Just as he had done with the 16th - century poem Golden Slumbers which was released on The Beatles ' Abbey Road LP in 1969, he added his own melody to the lyrics. The single was a top 20 hit in Britain although both the choice for and the saccharine arrangement of `` Mary Had a Little Lamb '' did much to erode his standing with leading rock journalists. McCartney played the song during Wings ' 1972 summer tour and it was included in the Spring 1973 James Paul McCartney television special. It is commercially available on the 1993 CD issue of the Wings Wild Life LP. Media Note : This melody is the British version, which is slightly different from the American version. Mary Had a Little Lamb Male singing the first verses of `` Mary Had a Little Lamb ''. Problems playing this file ? See media help. Uses of the music The first Korean musical road, created using grooves cut into the ground and intended to help motorists stay alert and awake plays `` Mary Had a Little Lamb '' and took four days to construct. It can be found close to Anyang, Gyeonggi, South Korea. See also Children 's literature portal Find more aboutMary Had a Little Lambat Wikipedia 's sister projects Definitions from Wiktionary Media from Wikimedia Commons News from Wikinews Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource Textbooks from Wikibooks Learning resources from Wikiversity List of nursery rhymes References Jump up ^ Full text of Poems for our children : including Mary had a little lamb : designed for families, Sabbath schools, and infant schools : written to inculcate moral truths and virtuous sentiments Jump up ^ Mary Had A Little Lamb. Song Facts Jump up ^ Roulstone, John ; Mary ( Sawyer ) and her friends ( 1928 ). The Story of Mary 's Little Lamb. Dearborn : Mr. & Mrs. Henry Ford. p. 8. Jump up ^ `` Sterling fire called arson ''. Worcester Telegram & Gazette News. August 14, 2007. Retrieved 2014 - 06 - 14. Jump up ^ Bronze of lamb. The 2 - foot - tall statue and historical marker are on the town common in Sterling, Massachusetts. Jump up ^ `` LOWELL MASON, `` Mary Lamb '' ( music ) in Juvenile Lyre, Or, Hymns and Songs, Religious, Moral, and Cheerful, Set to Appropriate Music, For the Use of Primary and Common Schools, Boston : Richardson, Lord & Holbrook ; Hartford, H. & F.J. Huntington, -- Richards ``. Forgotten Chapters of Boston 's Literary History. Retrieved 2014 - 06 - 14. ^ Jump up to : Matthew Rubery, ed. ( 2011 ). `` Introduction ''. Audiobooks, Literature, and Sound Studies. Routledge. pp. 1 -- 21. ISBN 978 - 0 - 415 - 88352 - 8. Jump up ^ Thomas Edison ( 30 November 1926 ). `` Mary had a little lamb '' -- via Internet Archive. Jump up ^ Grondahl, Paul ( 2012 - 10 - 26 ). `` Hear the earliest known recording of voice, music ''. Timesunion.com. Retrieved 2014 - 06 - 14. Jump up ^ `` Mary Had a Little Lamb ''. Jump up ^ Choo, Joohee ; Lee, Rebecca ( 29 November 2007 ). `` Singing Streets and Melody Roads ''. ABC News. Retrieved 8 May 2012. Nursery rhymes ( list ) `` A-Tisket, A-Tasket '' `` Aiken Drum '' `` Baa, Baa, Black Sheep '' `` Did You Ever See a Lassie ? '' `` Hey Diddle Diddle '' `` Hickory Dickory Dock '' `` Hot Cross Buns '' `` Humpty Dumpty '' `` I 'm a Little Teapot '' `` It 's Raining, It 's Pouring '' `` Jack and Jill '' `` Little Bo - Peep '' `` Little Boy Blue '' `` Little Jack Horner '' `` Little Miss Muffet '' `` Mary Had a Little Lamb '' `` Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary '' `` Old King Cole '' `` Old MacDonald Had a Farm '' `` Old Mother Hubbard '' `` Peter Piper '' `` Polly Put the Kettle On '' `` Poor Mary '' `` Pop Goes the Weasel '' `` Pussy Cat Pussy Cat '' `` Rain Rain Go Away '' `` Roses Are Red '' `` Rub - a-dub - dub '' `` Simple Simon '' `` Sing a Song of Sixpence '' `` Sticks and Stones '' `` The Grand Old Duke of York '' `` The Queen of Hearts '' `` There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe '' `` Three Little Kittens '' `` Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star '' Clapping `` A Sailor Went to Sea '' `` Down Down Baby '' `` Mary Mack '' `` Miss Susie '' `` Miss Lucy '' `` Pat - a-cake '' `` Pretty Little Dutch Girl '' `` Pease Porridge Hot '' `` Stella Ella Ola '' Counting `` Duck, duck, goose '' `` Eeny, meeny, miny, moe '' `` One, Two, Buckle My Shoe '' `` One, Two, Three, Four, Five '' `` This Old Man '' `` Tinker, Tailor '' Finger - plays `` Five Little Monkeys '' `` Five Little Ducks '' `` Five Little Speckled Frogs '' `` Itsy Bitsy Spider '' `` Little Robin Redbreast '' `` Round and Round the Garden '' `` This Little Piggy '' `` Two Little Dickie Birds '' Games `` London Bridge '' `` The Muffin Man '' `` Mulberry Bush '' `` Oranges and Lemons '' `` Ring a Ring o ' Roses '' `` The Farmer in the Dell '' Riddle `` As I was going to St Ives '' Lullabies `` Hush, Little Baby '' `` Rock - a-bye Baby '' Rounds `` Ding Dong Bell '' `` Frère Jacques '' `` Kookaburra '' `` Row, Row, Row Your Boat '' `` Scotland 's Burning '' `` Three Blind Mice '' Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mary_Had_a_Little_Lamb&oldid=842679356 '' Categories : Songs about sheep Fictional sheep Children 's songs American nursery rhymes Songs about women Hidden categories : All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from May 2017 Articles needing additional references from May 2017 All articles needing additional references Articles with unsourced statements from September 2015 Wikipedia articles needing clarification from May 2017 Articles with hAudio microformats Talk Contents About Wikipedia Wikisource Deutsch Español Français 한국어 Italiano עברית മലയാളം 日本 語 Português Русский Simple English 粵語 中文 4 more Edit links This page was last edited on 23 May 2018, at 23 : 49. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who wrote the poem mary had a little lamb
Answer: Sarah Josepha Hale