Three Little Kittens

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An illustration from R. N. Ballantyne's 1858 story based on the Three Little Kittens nursery rhyme.

Three Little Kittens is a nursery rhyme.

1 The traditional text
2 Publication
3 Interpretations
4 References
5 External links

[edit] The traditional text

Three little kittens,
They lost their mittens,
And they began to cry,
Oh, mother dear,
We sadly fear
Our mittens we have lost.
What! Lost your mittens,
You naughty kittens!
Then you shall have no pie.
Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow.
You shall have no pie.

The three little kittens,
They found their mittens,
And they began to cry,
Oh, mother dear,
See here, see here,
Our mittens we have found.
What! Found your mittens,
You darling kittens!
Then you shall have some pie.
Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow.
You shall have some pie.

The three little kittens,
Put on their mittens,
And soon ate up the pie;
Oh, mother dear,
We greatly fear
Our mittens we have soiled.
What! Soiled your mittens,
You naughty kittens!
Then they began to sigh,
Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow.
They began to sigh.

The three little kittens,
They washed their mittens,
And hung them out to dry;
Oh mother dear,
Look here, look here,
Our mittens we have washed.
What! Washed your mittens,
You're such good kittens.
I smell a rat close by!
Hush! Hush! Hush! Hush!
Hush! Hush! Hush!
I smell a rat close by.

[edit] Publication

Like most nursery rhymes, this rhyme is anonymous. It dates to before 1858, when R. M. Ballantyne wrote an elaboration of the poem under the title The Three Little Kittens, published as part of the Good Little Pig's Library, volume 1. ^[1] A much later version of the story was published under the Little Golden Books imprint in the United States.

[edit] Interpretations

The deep meaning of these verses suggests a cautionary tale involving the relationship between parents and children, who lose and then rediscover items of their property. Onomatopoeia figures in the poem's reference to meow. ^[2] The mother's statement that she "smells a rat" invokes a traditional idiom that introduces a note of ambiguity into the poem: the kittens were rewarded for losing and then finding the mittens; it may in fact be that the mother has in fact detected a rodent, but the mother's "smelling a rat" may also suggest that the soiling and washing of the mittens was a ploy for a second reward.^[3]

The poem can be read in a call and response choral style featuring the voice of a narrator and the voices of the kittens.^[4]