Star Light, Star Bright

"Star Light, Star Bright"
"Star Light, Star Bright"
Song

"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,

Get 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. ^[3] The song and tradition seem to have reached Britain by the early twentieth century and have since spread worldwide.^[2]

In popular culture

"Star Light, Star Bright" is found in Madonna's 1983 single Lucky Star.

The lines "Wish I may, wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight" are also found in Metallica's song "King Nothing".

Notes

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

[1] R. Gerlings, Hey, Diddle, Diddle and Other Best-Loved Rhymes (Windmill Books, 2009), p. 32.

[Opie1989-2] 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.

[1]

[2]

[3]