Yankee+Doodle

Strategies
 * Students will analyze the verses of the song and discuss the implications of the song's meaning within their assigned groups. Students will then come together as a whole class and share their thoughts on their interpretation of the song.
 * Students should define unfamiliar words with in the song.
 * Students should think about who is being referred to as a Yankee.
 * Students should think about the emotions the British soldiers could have felt while singing the song and impact the song could have made on the America military men.
 * Students should determine if the song is relevant to the time period of the American Revolution


 * The song was originally sung by the British side to mock Americans, however the Americans took ownership of the song and began to sing it themselves, to turn the intended put-down into a source of pride after, though outnumbered, they managed to turn the British back at Lexington and Concord.



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[|Yankee Doodle] [|Thinkquest]

[|**//Yankee Doodle//**]**was a song made by a British man named Richard Shuckburg to make fun of the Colonists. Unfortunately for him, the Americans loved the song and so they made the British dance to it by 1781. When the British man wrote "He stuck a feather in his hat and called it Macaroni" meant that Americans were stupid and thought that a feather was macaroni. Macaroni isn't that kind that we eat: it was a hair style in England. Doodle meant "a foolish person." Yankee was a nick-name for New Englanders. The original tune for //Yankee Doodle// was //Lydia Fisher's Jig// with these words: "Lucy Locket lost her pocket, Kitty Fisher found it; Nothing in it, nothing on it, But the binding 'round it.**

**Lyrics**

**1: Father and I went down to camp** **Along with Captain Gooding** **And there we saw the men and boys** **As thick as hasty pudding.**

**2: //Chorus//** **//Yankee doodle, keep it up//** **//Yankee doodle dandy//** **//Mind the music and the step//** **//And with the girls be handy.//**

**3: There was Captain Washington** **Upon a slapping stallion** **A-giving orders to his men** **I guess there was a million.**

**//Chorus//**

**4: And then the feathers on his hat** **They looked so' tarnal fin-a** **I wanted pockily to get** **To give to my Jemima.**

**//Chorus//**

**5: And then we saw a swamping gun** **Large as a log of maple** **Upon a deuced little cart** **A load for father's cattle.**

**//Chorus//**

**6: And every time they shoot it off** **It takes a horn of powder** **It makes a noise like father's gun** **Only a nation louder.**

**//Chorus//**

**7: I went as nigh to one myself** **As' Siah's underpinning** **And father went as nigh agin** **I thought the deuce was in him.** **We saw a little barrel, too** **The heads were made of leather** **They knocked upon it with little clubs** **And called the folks together.**

**Other Verses:**

**//Chorus//**

**8: And there they'd fife away like fun** **And play on cornstalk fiddles** **And some had ribbons red as blood** **All bound around their middles.** **The troopers, too, would gallop up** **And fire right in our faces** **It scared me almost to death** **To see them run such races.**

**//Chorus//**

**9: Uncle Sam came there to change** **Some pancakes and some onions** **For' lasses cake to carry home** **To give his wife and young ones.**

**//Chorus//**

**10: But I can't tell half I see** **They kept up such a smother** **So I took my hat off, made a bow** **And scampered home to mother.**

**//Chorus//**

**11: Cousin Simon grew so bold** **I thought he would have cocked it** **It scared me so I streaked it off** **And hung by father's pocket.**

**//Chorus//**

**12: And there I saw a pumpkin shell** **As big as mother's basin** **And every time they touched it off** **They scampered like the nation.**

**13: And there was Captain Washington,** **With gentlefolks about him,** **They say he's gown so 'tarnal proud** **He will not ride without them.**

**//Chorus//**

**14: There came Gen'ral Washington** **Upon a snow-white charger** **He looked as big as all outdoors** **And thought that he was larger.**

**//Chorus//**