A mouse runs up the clock, the clock strikes one, and down he scurries again, all in six quick lines built for a ticking finger-walk up an arm or a tabletop. The rhyme's real job is counting practice disguised as a chase, since "struck one" is the whole plot. Works as well said fast as it does said slow.
A tick-tock chant: keep it steady like a clock, squeak on 'mouse'.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
Hickory, dickory, dock!
The mouse ran up the clock;
The clock struck one,
And down he run,
Hickory, dickory, dock!
About this poem
First printed 1744 · Roud 6489
Printed in 1744, in the same little songbook that first held Baa, Baa, Black Sheep. The odd opening words may be counting words. Shepherds in the north of England once counted their sheep with old words that ran hevera, devera, dick for eight, nine, ten, and some hear hickory, dickory, dock as a worn-down echo of that. Nobody can prove it. What is certain is that the rhyme keeps perfect clock time either way.
Let your hand climb like the mouse as the words go up, scurrying finger over finger. The strike of one is the moment to land: give it a single loud clap, then send the mouse dashing back down your arm. It is short enough to repeat and repeat, which suits a fidgety child who needs one small thing to fix on. Good in a waiting room.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition