Take a Gander at Mother Goose

I occasionally find myself running through the countryside singing and reciting in English. What comes to mind is always unexpected; songs from Sunday school (I used to go to church), lines from high school plays (I used to be an actress) and my "What it Means to be American" speech from the Miss United Teenager Pageant (I used to be patriotic; take note, I didn't say beautiful because it wasn't called a beauty pageant).      

I don't remember having been friends with Little Miss Muffet, but for some reason she came running with me the other day. That's when I realized I was reciting a nursery rhyme with three words I'd never uttered outside the verse. I had no idea what a tuffet was, and only a vague inkling that curds and whey had something to do with cottage cheese.

Little Miss Muffet
sat on a tuffet,
eating her curds and whey;
Along came a spider,
who sat down beside her
and frightened Miss Muffet away.
-Mother Goose, 1805
 
Maybe I've gone off the deep end for expecting nursery rhymes to be deep, but there must be more than Miss Muffet sitting on a stool getting scared by a spider. The more I recited, the more I sought something profound from Ms. Goose. With no internet in my pocket and another 5 miles til home, I decided to analyze the rhyme without Mr. Google.

Little Miss Muffet (an average person)
sat on a tuffet (sofa, Lazy Boy, lounge chair),
eating her curds and whey; (pasta and potato chips [or cottage cheese, if you prefer]);
Along came a spider (the Grim Reaper, Cupid, life itself),
who sat down beside her
and frightened Miss Muffet away (to play, to live, to move).
-me, 2024

Hats off to the spider. Maybe Mother Goose should be sold in the self-help section.