The Star

The Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is a famous English lullaby. The lyrics are from an early-nineteenth-century English poem by Jane Taylor, The Star. The poem, which is in couplet form, was 1st produced in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a group of poems by Taylor and her sister Ann. It is chanted to the tune of the French melody Ah! vous dirai-je, maman, which was produced in 1761 and later arranged by some composers, including Mozart with Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman". The English lyrics have 5 stanzas, although only the 1st is well-known. It has a Roud Folk Tune Index number of 7666. This music is generally executed in the key of C major.

The tune is in the widely known domain and has many adaptations around the world.

The English lines were 1st written as a poem by Jane Taylor and produced with the title "The Star" in Rhymes for the Nursery by Jane and her sister Ann in London in 1806.

The lines from "The Star" were 1st produced with the song in The Singing Master: First Class Tune Book in 1838. However, before, when it was just a folk song, there were only four verses.

The lines of the song are the contents of the poem, with the first 2 lines of the whole poem repeated as a refrain after every stanza.

The 1st stanza of the song is typically as written, but more stanzas usually contain minor variations.

Other variations exist such as from the year 1896 in Song Stories for the Kindergarten by Mildred J. Hill.

A parody of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" entitled "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat" is spoken by the Mad Hatter in chapter 7 of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

An adaptation of the music, named "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Earth", was written by Charles Randolph Grean, Fred Hertz and Leonard Nimoy. It is involved on Nimoy's first 1967 album Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock's Music from Outer Space, with him delivering the content as Spock explaining how the star-people wish upon the earth and so on. As of the month of April 2019, a version of the tune transferred to YouTube by the channel "Super Simple Songs - Kids Songs" has got over 1.1 billion views.

A genre using synonyms from Roget's Thesaurus exists.

The tune can also be played as a singing game.

Jane Taylor was born on 23 September 1783 and passed away on 13 April 1824, was an English poet and novelist. She wrote the texts to the song "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", which is well-known, but it is usually forgotten who wrote it. The sisters, Jane and Ann Taylor and their authorship of innumerable works have often been perplexed, in part because their early ones were produced together. Ann's son, Josiah Gilbert, wrote in her profile, "2 little poems - 'My Mother,' and 'Twinkle, twinkle, little Star' – are possibly more usually repeated than any; the 1st, a lyric of life, was by Ann, the 2nd, of nature, by Jane; and they demonstrate this difference between the sisters."

Born in London, Jane Taylor resided with her family at Shilling Grange on Shilling Street, Lavenham, Suffolk, where her home can still be seen. Jane's mother was the writer Ann Taylor. In 1796–1810, she resided in Colchester. This may be where "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" was written, however, Ongar and Lavenham create the same claims. The Taylor sisters belonged to a large literary family. Their father, Isaac of Ongar, was an engraver and later a diverging minister. Their mother, Ann Taylor, wrote 7 works of noble and devout guidance, two of them fictionalized.

The collection Original Poems for Infant Minds by some young persons was requested by the publisher Darton and Harvey and published anonymously. The main contributors were Ann Taylor, Jane Taylor, and Adelaide O'Keeffe, but Bernard Barton and several other members of the Taylor family helped with it as well. As Donelle Ruwe writes in her study of its genesis and reception history, it was provided as a single-volume work in 1804, and when it certified triumphant, additional poems were solicited for an extra volume, which was produced in 1805. Over time, the collection became related to the Taylor family. However O'Keeffe wrote to the publisher asking a greater percentage of the collection's earnings, Darton and Harvey deferred to the Taylor family regarding all editorial choices. For their part, the Taylor family was openly opposed to O'Keeffe and the negative of her background in writing for the stage.

After the victory of Original Poems for Infant Minds, Ann and Jane Taylor produced the poetry collections Rhymes for the Nursery in 1806 and Hymns for Infant Minds in the year 1810. In the 2 volumes of Original Poems for Infant Minds, the Taylor sisters, O'Keeffe and the more contributors were recognized as authors for every poem by initial or other distinguishing markers. In Rhymes for the Nursery (the year 1806), Ann and Jane Taylor were not distinguished as authors of the collection or of individual poems. The most popular piece in the 1806 collection is "The Star," commonly well-known today as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", which was set to a French melody.

Christina Duff Stewart recognizes authorship in Rhymes for the Nursery based on a copy belonging to Canon Isaac Taylor, who noted the pieces by Ann and Jane Taylor. Canon Isaac was Taylor's nephew, a son of her brother Isaac of Stanford Rivers. Christina Stewart also confirms assignments of Original Poems based on the publisher's information.

Jane Taylor passed away on 13 April 1824 of breast cancer at the age of 40, her mind still "teeming with unsuccessful projects". Jane was buried in the Ongar churchyard in Essex. After Jane's demise, her brother Isaac gathered many of her works and included a profile of her in The Writings of Jane Taylor, In Five Volumes (in the year 1832).

A lullaby, or cradle tune, is a soothing melody or piece of music that is commonly played for (or sung to) children.