Jane Taylor wrote this as part of a longer poem called "The Star"; only the opening verses are commonly sung today, and this is the one everybody knows. Its wondering tone and the simple wonder-what-you-are line make it a gentle way to end the day looking up at the sky, real or imagined.
Sung. The same tune as the alphabet song and Baa, Baa, Black Sheep.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
When the traveller in the dark
Thanks you for your tiny spark:
How could he see where to go
If you did not twinkle so?
In the dark blue sky you keep,
Often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky.
As your bright and tiny spark
Lights the traveller in the dark,
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
About this poem
Words by Jane Taylor, 1806 · Roud 7666
This one has an author. Jane Taylor wrote it as a poem called The Star, published in 1806 in a book she made with her sister Ann. It runs to five verses. Most people only ever meet the first. The tune arrived separately, an old French melody that Mozart, among others, wrote variations on. So the words are English and Georgian, the tune older and French. They found each other later.
A settling song, best kept for near sleep. The later verses are worth learning: the star becomes a small light for a traveller lost in the dark, a kind thought to send a child off with. Open and close your hands like a flashing star as you sing. By the last line, have the lights already low.
Public domain. Text from The Little Mother Goose (illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, 1912), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition