A gentle, repeating rhyme built around a simple refrain asking why two people shouldn't love each other. Its steady rhythm and returning chorus make it easy to rock or sway along to.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
Johnny shall have a new bonnet,
And Johnny shall go to the fair,
And Johnny shall have a blue ribbon
To tie up his bonny brown hair.
And why may not I love Johnny?
And why may not Johnny love me?
And why may not I love Johnny
As well as another body?
And here's a leg for a stocking,
And here's a foot for a shoe,
And he has a kiss for his daddy,
And two for his mammy, I trow.
And why may not I love Johnny?
And why may not Johnny love me?
And why may not I love Johnny
As well as another body?
About this rhyme
The rhyme repeats its central question ('why may not I love Johnny?') without ever answering it in the text given. · Gifts named for Johnny in the rhyme include a new bonnet and a blue ribbon; later lines mention a stocking and a shoe.
This is a courting rhyme, built around a question that keeps circling back. Johnny gets a new bonnet and a blue ribbon, gifts listed one by one, while the refrain keeps asking why the two of them shouldn't love each other, and never gives an answer. Let a child join in on the refrain once they've caught the words.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition