Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

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"**Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star**" is a popular English lullaby. The lyrics are from an early-19th-century English poem by Jane Taylor, "The Star". The poem, which is in coupletform, was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection of poems by Taylor and her sister Ann. It is sung to the tune of the Frenchmelody Ah! vous dirai-je, maman, which was published in 1761 and later arranged by several composers including Mozart with Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman".[1] The English lyrics have five stanzas, although only the first is widely known. It has a Roud Folk Song Indexnumber of 7666. This song is usually performed in the key of C major.

The song is in the public domain,[2] and has many adaptations around the world.[3]**Origins**
**The English lyrics were first written as a poem by Jane Taylor (1783–1824)[4] and published with the title "The Star" in Rhymes for the Nursery by Jane and her sister Ann Taylor (1782–1866) in London in 1806:[5]**

The lyrics from "The Star" were first published with the tune in The Singing Master: First Class Tune Book in 1838.[4] Although before, when it was just a folk song, there were only 4 verses[4]**Score**
'***Lyrics***

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The lyrics of the song are the text of the poem, with the first two lines repeated as a refrainafter each stanza. For instance, the first stanza of the lyrics is:

The first stanza of the song is typically as written, but further stanzas typically contain minor variations.**Other text versions**
**sheet music from Song Stories for the Kindergarten[6] Play**

Additional variations exist such as from 1896 in Song Stories for the Kindergarten[6] by Mildred J. Hill.

A parody of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" titled "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat" is recited by the Mad Hatter in chapter seven of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.[7]

An adaptation of the song, named "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Earth", was written by Charles Randolph Grean, Fred Hertz and Leonard Nimoy. It is included on Nimoy's first 1967 album Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock's Music From Outer Space, with him reciting the text as Spock explaining how the star-people wish upon an earth and so forth.[8]

As of December 2018, a version of the songs uploaded to YouTube by the channel "Super Simple Songs - Kids Songs" has received over 1.0 billion views.[9]

A version using synonyms from Roget's Thesaurus exists.[10]

The song can also be played as a singing game.

Woman performs "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" singing game.

**See also**

* List of nursery rhymes
* "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman"
* Little Star (The Elegants song)
* "Alphabet song"
* "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep"
* Twinkling
* Are you sleeping

**Notes**

4. M. Cryer, Love Me Tender: The Stories Behind the World's Best-loved Songs (Frances Lincoln, 2009), pp. 83–5.
5. I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 397–8.
9. Super Simple. "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", YouTube, September 5, 2010, accessed November 30, 2018
10. G. Hughes, A history of English words (Wiley-Blackwell, 2000), p. 40.

**External links**

* Works related to Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star at Wikisource
* Learning materials related to Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star at Wikiversity
* Media related to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star at Wikimedia Commons
* Lullabies of Europe/Languages from the Cradle Dead Link! A European Union, government-funded education project to collect lullabies (in their native language) from across Europe - includes samples in seven languages.
* Audio segment from BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour,