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Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
All Instruments: Douglas Milne, Lead Vocals: Helen Raw
From the TwinkleTrax album "Lullabies - 20 Classic Bedtime Songs And Lullabies"
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Lyrics of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"
Video of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"
Origins of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
When the traveller in the dark
Thanks you for your little spark;
Could he see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so?
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
In the dark blue sky you keep,
While you through my curtains peep,
And you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Origins of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"
"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" is one of the best known rhymes in the English language. It was written by Jane Taylor (1783-1824), and, entitled "The Star", was published in 1806 in "Rhymes For The Nursery", a book she wrote with her sister Ann.
The poem was subsequently set to the tune of the French nursery rhyme, "Ah! Vous Dirai-Je, Maman". The lyrics were first set to the tune in 1838 in "The Singing Master: First Class Tune Book".
The song was parodied by Lewis Carroll in his 1865 fantasy novel "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland", where the Mad Hatter sings:
Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
How I wonder what you're at!
Up above the world you fly
Like a tea tray in the sky.
"The Bat" was the nickname of one of the Dons at Oxford - a former teacher of Carroll's named Professor Bartholomew Price. It is one of the few parodies in the Alice books of which the original is still widely known.
Mary Mapes Dodge's 1894 book of verse, "When Life Is Young", contained a Latin translation:
Mica, mica, parva stella,
Miror quaenam sis tam bella.
Super terra in caelo,
Alba gemma splendido.
Mica, mica, parva stella,
Miror quaenam sis tam bella.
In June 2011, astronomers published a scientifically updated version, taking into account what has been found out about stars since 1806.
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
I know exactly what you are
Opaque ball of hot dense gas
Million times our planet's mass
Looking small because you're far
I know exactly what you are
Fusing atoms in your core
Hydrogen, helium, carbon and more
With such power you shine far
Twinkle twinkle little star
Classed by their spectroscopy
Oh, Be A Fine Girl Kiss Me
Bright when close and faint when far
I know exactly what you are
Smallest ones burn cool and slow
Still too hot to visit, though
Red stars dominate by far
Twinkle twinkle little star
Largest ones are hot and blue
Supernova when they're through
Then black hole or neutron star
I know exactly what you are
Our Sun's average as stars go
Formed 5 billion years ago
Halfway through its life so far
Twinkle twinkle little star
Forming from collapsing clouds
Cold and dusty gas enshrouds
Spinning, heating protostar
I know exactly what you are
Often forming multiply
Clusters bound by gravity
Open type or globulAR
Twinkle twinkle little star
Two hundred billion stars all stay
Bound up in the Milky Way
Dusty spiral with a bar
I know exactly what you are.
Origins text ©2011 TwinkleTrax Children's Songs.