Behind the Domestic Nursery Rhyme, “Polly Put the Kettle On”

Today, societal roles are changing. Check a populous source like Twitter (X) for a few moments and you can see people moving out of what was once expected them to find new ground. Now, no matter how anyone feels about that, it’s certainly the case today and into the future.

But in the past when gender roles and gender norms were more steadfast (for better or worse), there were books, concepts and even nursery rhymes that helped define them. Case in point, “Polly Put the Kettle On.” But what is the history of this rhyme and what does it mean? Let’s dive in.

[RELATED: Behind the Hard Working Nursery Rhyme “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe”]

Power And Position

The simple alliterative nursery rhyme reads like this,

Polly put the kettle on,
Polly put the kettle on,
Polly put the kettle on,
We’ll all have tea.

Sukey take it off again,
Sukey take it off again,
Sukey take it off again,
They’ve all gone away.

And while there seems to be little or nothing to it, there is a lot going on in this nursery rhyme. For starters, both characters named are women. Sukey was a nickname of Susan and Polly was a nickname of Mary back in the day. Even in the video below, we see both characters as girls.

So, the speaker of the rhyme is asking these two women to put water on for tea, a domestic act often, back when, reserved for women and not men or boys. Women ran the house, whether they liked it or not, in many cases.

But while there doesn’t seem to be any malice in the speaker’s voice, the key is what we don’t see. There is no “please” or “thank you” expressed in the work. It’s not quite demanded of the girls to put the water on, but there doesn’t seem to be much wiggle room or gratitude.

Final Thoughts

For the rhyme, which was published first by Joseph Dale in London in 1803, the young women (or girls) are asked to do something then asked to do the exact opposite. Yet, since the girls are asked so easily and freely to do the work, there is an obvious power dynamic on display between them and the speaker.

Who knows why the people left, perhaps they got tired of tea, the conversation was boring, or they were simply ready to go. Still, the girls are put to work.

Photo by Alexey Furman/Getty Images