Rain is weirdly central to how we raise kids. You’ve probably hummed it a thousand times while watching droplets race down a windowpane. It's raining it's pouring. It’s a rhythmic, simple chant that defines childhood boredom. But honestly, if you actually stop to listen to the lyrics, the song is kind of a mess. It’s dark. It’s short. It’s arguably about a traumatic brain injury.
Most of us just see it as a nursery rhyme. A way to kill time when the playground is off-limits. Yet, the history of this specific rhyme is a tangled web of oral tradition, 20th-century recordings, and some genuinely concerning medical implications that we all just... ignore? Let's get into why this little ditty is way more than just a weather report.
The Mystery of the Old Man’s Concussion
Everyone knows the basic gist. The old man is snoring. He goes to bed and bumps his head. Then, the kicker: he couldn't get up in the morning.
In a modern context, that’s a medical emergency. If you bump your head and then can't wake up, you’re looking at a subdural hematoma or a severe concussion. We are literally teaching toddlers to sing about a guy who likely died in his sleep from a traumatic brain injury (TBI). It’s grim.
Why do we do this?
Nursery rhymes are often repositories for the darker parts of the human experience. They’re like cultural fossils. While songs like Ring Around the Rosie are frequently (and sometimes incorrectly) linked to the plague, It's raining it's pouring feels much more personal. It’s a domestic tragedy set to a melody.
Where Did It Actually Come From?
Tracing the origins of folk songs is a nightmare. People didn’t exactly keep spreadsheets of playground chants in the 1800s. However, we can pinpoint some milestones.
The most recognizable version of the melody is actually shared with other rhymes, specifically the "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" tune. This suggests the lyrics were a "floating" verse—lines that people just slapped onto catchy, existing melodies because they fit the meter.
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The first recorded versions start popping up in the early 20th century. One of the earliest documented instances is in The Little Mother Goose, published around 1912 in the United States. Even then, the lyrics were basically what we have today. This implies the song was already well-entrenched in the American and British psyche long before it hit the printing press.
Some folklorists point to the fact that the rhyme doesn't appear in the foundational 18th-century collections like Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book. This makes it a relatively "new" addition to the nursery rhyme canon. It’s a product of the Victorian or Edwardian era, a time when children’s literature was shifting from purely moralistic tales to things that were a bit more observational—and sometimes accidentally macabre.
The Lyrics: A Breakdown of the Chaos
The standard version is a three-line masterpiece of simplicity:
- It's raining, it's pouring.
- The old man is snoring.
- He bumped his head and went to bed and couldn't get up in the morning.
But there are regional variations. Some versions add a fourth line about eating "apple sauce" or "cold porridge." These additions usually serve to lighten the mood. They take the focus off the potential coma and put it back on the mundanity of breakfast.
Why This Rhyme Sticks (The Science of Earworms)
Have you ever noticed that nursery rhymes all sound kind of the same? There’s a reason. Most of them, including It's raining it's pouring, use the "falling third" interval.
In music theory terms, if you’re singing "Sol" and "Mi" (like the first two notes of "Star Light, Star Bright"), you’re using the interval that children across almost all Western cultures naturally gravitate toward. It’s the universal "nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah" chant of the playground.
Because the song uses this primal melodic structure, it’s basically impossible to forget. It’s hardwired into our linguistic development.
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The Medical Perspective: Should We Be Worried?
I talked to some folks who deal with head trauma—not officially for a study, but just to get the "expert" vibe on the lyrics. The consensus? The old man is in trouble.
If you hit your head hard enough to "bump" it and then immediately go to bed because you feel dazed or sleepy, that’s a massive red flag. Doctors call this a "lucid interval." You feel okay for a minute, then the internal bleeding starts to put pressure on the brain. By the time morning rolls around, if you can't wake up, the prognosis is catastrophic.
It’s kind of wild that we’ve turned a cautionary tale about head trauma into a sleepy-time song. But that’s the power of a good beat. It masks the horror.
Cultural Impact and Modern Usage
The song has moved way beyond the nursery. It’s a staple in horror movies. You know the trope: a slow, creepy version of a children's song plays while a killer stalks a rainy hallway. Why does that work? Because of the contrast.
We associate the rhyme with innocence and safety. When you subvert that with the reality of the lyrics—an old man dying alone in the rain—it becomes deeply unsettling.
Pop culture has also leaned into it. Everyone from rappers to indie bands has sampled the melody. It’s a shorthand for "gloomy day" or "childhood nostalgia." It’s one of the few pieces of media that is truly universal. Whether you grew up in London, New York, or Sydney, you know this song.
Making Sense of the "Old Man"
Who is he? Some suggest he’s a personification of the North Wind. In some Celtic mythologies, old spirits or "giants" were responsible for the weather. When it rained hard, it was said the giants were "pouring" out their jars.
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Others think he’s just a literal old man. In the days before central heating and soundproofed roofing, a heavy rainstorm was loud. If you were old and tired, the sound of rain on a tin or thatch roof might be the only thing that could lull you into a sleep deep enough to snore through.
The "bumped his head" part might just be a clumsy way of saying he fell. Maybe the floor was wet? Maybe he tripped over a bedpost? The song doesn't care about the why, only the result.
Actionable Takeaways for Parents and Educators
If you’re singing this with kids, you don’t have to give them a lecture on neurosurgery. But it is a great jumping-off point for a few things:
- Weather Education: Use it to talk about why it rains and how the water cycle works. It’s a natural transition from "it's pouring" to "where does the water go?"
- Safety Lessons: Honestly, it’s a decent way to teach "see a doctor if you hit your head." It sounds silly, but kids remember songs better than rules.
- Rhyme and Rhythm: Use the falling third interval to help toddlers develop their pitch. Have them clap along to the beat to build motor skills.
- Creative Writing: Ask older kids what happened next. Did the old man wake up? Did he just need a really big cup of coffee? Let them rewrite the ending to be less depressing.
What Most People Get Wrong
The biggest misconception is that there is a secret, occult meaning. People love to invent "hidden histories" for nursery rhymes. They want it to be about a specific king or a secret revolution.
The truth is usually simpler. It's raining it's pouring is likely just a bit of folk doggerel. It’s a "nonsense rhyme." It exists because it rhymes and it’s easy to remember. Its power isn't in its history, but in its persistence. It has survived for over a century because it captures a mood—that specific, gray-skied feeling of being stuck inside while the world gets soaked.
The old man might not have gotten up in the morning, but the song isn't going anywhere. It’s baked into our DNA at this point. Next time you hear it, just remember: maybe check on the person snoring in the next room if they've had a rough day.
How to Use This in a Modern Classroom
Teachers often find that these rhymes are the best way to bridge the gap between speech and reading. The repetitive nature of the lyrics helps with "phonemic awareness"—the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words.
- Isolate the Rhymes: Have kids identify "pouring" and "snoring."
- Change the Verbs: Make it "It's snowing, it's blowing" to show how language is flexible.
- Visual Aids: Drawing the "old man" helps kids internalize the narrative structure of a beginning, middle, and end.
Even though the "end" of the story is a bit of a downer, the journey of the song is a foundational part of how we learn to communicate. It's a tiny, three-line epic that has conquered the world, one rainy afternoon at a time.