Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater

"Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13497.

Lyrics

Common modern versions include:

Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,

Had a wife but couldn't keep her;

He put her in a pumpkin shell

And there he kept her very well.

Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,

Had another and didn't leave her;

Peter learned to read and spell,

And then he loved her very well.</poem>

Origins

The first surviving version of the rhyme was published in Infant Institutes, part the first: or a Nurserical Essay on the Poetry, Lyric and Allegorical, of the Earliest Ages, &c., in London around 1797.

Had a wife,

And he couldna' keep her,

He pat her i' the wa',

And lat a' the mice eat her.

</poem>

This verse is also considered to be an older version of the rhyme Eeper Weeper.