Star Light, Star Bright

For the science fiction story collection by Alfred Bester, see Star Light, Star Bright (book) and Star Light, Star Bright (short story).
"Star Light, Star Bright"
Roud #16339
Song
Written USA
Published Late 19thC
Form Nursery rhyme
Writer(s) Traditional
Language English

"Star Light, Star Bright" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 16339.

Lyrics

The lyrics usually conform to the following:

Star light, star bright,
The first star I see tonight;
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.[1]

Origins

The superstition of hoping for wishes granted when seeing a shooting or falling star may date back to the ancient world.[2] Wishing on the first star seen may also predate this rhyme, which first began to be recorded in late nineteenth-century America. "Star Light, Star Bright" is also found in Madonna's 1983 single Lucky Star.[3] The song and tradition seem to have reached Britain by the early twentieth century and have since spread worldwide.[2]

Notes

  1. ↑ R. Gerlings, Hey, Diddle, Diddle and Other Best-Loved Rhymes (Windmill Books, 2009), p. 32.
  2. 1 2 I. Opie and M. Tatem, A Dictionary of Superstitions (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), pp. 175-6.
  3. ↑ R. Webster, The Encyclopedia of Superstitions (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2008), p. 245.
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