page_title: Ding Dong Bell
section_title: Reformed versions
hierarchical_section_title: Ding Dong Bell / Reformed versions
caption_attribution_description: "Ding dong bell", nursery rhyme illustration from a 1905 issue of The Illustrated London News
context_page_description: "Ding Dong Bell" or "Ding Dong Dell" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 12853.
context_section_description: The most common modern version is arguably already a moderation of the theme of the original rhyme. The fear that children might be affected by the violence of the rhyme and specifically that children might be tempted to put cats in wells, led to several attempts to reform the rhyme. In his New Rhymes for Old (1949) Geoffrey Hall published the following alternative:
  Ding dong bell,
  
  Pussy's dead in the well
  
  Who let her die?
  
  Little Johnny Fin
  
  Who Got her alive?
  
  Little Tommy Thin.
  
  What a bad boy was that
  
  To kill a pussy cat.
  
  Who never did any harm,
  
  But played with the mice in his father's barn.
  A modern version replaces the word "pussy" with "kitty".
caption: Illustration of the rhyme from an issue of The Illustrated London News (1905)
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