Hey Diddle Diddle

Sing it and you'll have nightmares.

Hey diddle, diddle,

The cat and the fiddle,

The cow jumped over the moon;

The little dog laughed to see such sport,

And the dish ran away with the spoon.

 

The rhyme was created by a boy who was called by his fellowmen “the fork” because of his sense of direction. He had a girlfriend who was called “the spoon” to pair them up. But another boy called “the dish” (if you look it in the dictionary, it’s an informal term for an attractive person) was in love with the spoon. One night, he invited the fork and the spoon in his manor, a spooky house up a spooky hill. The dish was such an eccentric person that he just bought the place or some said, swindled or “diddled” to save money. Yet he wanted to celebrate with his friend, the fork. But out of courtesy, he and the spoon accepted the invitation.

 

 

They had dinner among the dusty tables, and chatted in the parlor surrounded by cobwebs. It was a stormy night that the dish insisted that they sleep in his manor. Since, they weren’t still married, the spoon stayed on a separate bedroom. That night, the fork woke up by the sound of a fiddle being played wildly. Its music was so strange and unimaginable like that of Erich Zann in H.P. Lovecraft’s story. He wanted to see who was playing it, but to the fork’s surprise, he couldn’t move, not even his toes. He realized he was sleep paralyzed. But he wasn’t sure if that music was real or a dream.

 

Anyway, his head was already turned to his left and looked out the window as he waited to wake up from the sleep paralysis. The sky cleared and revealed the silver full moon. Suddenly, he was surprised to see a huge white silhouette from the moonlight (the cow jumped over the moon). The ghost entered through the window. He wanted to scream but he could not open his mouth. As the huge ghost approached him, he felt colder, as if the white thing was inhaling his breath. He soon turned his head straight, and found that something was sitting on his chest. It was heavy, thus, making it more difficult to breathe. It was also hairy. The fork turned his eyes and saw its pointy ears and demonic face laughing (the little dog laughed). He struggled very hard to move a muscle, especially to open his mouth for he couldn’t breathe with his clogged nose.

 

The music of the fiddle grew wilder and louder. Then, the fork caught a glimpse at the door the shadows of his girlfriend and his so-called friend. He realized the dish set them up to “ran away with the spoon,” or to steal his girlfriend and let him die. But the nightmarish phantasms soon stole all of his breath, thus, he was out of life. As for the dish and the spoon, they didn’t escape the haunted house alive either. In the middle of the hall, they saw the fiddle player. It sort of looked like a cat. But whatever it was, it played a certain note whose horrible pitch made their ears bleed with their brain.

Author's Note

I found it hard to interpret Hey Diddle, Diddle, coz it was total nonsense. Then, I was inspired by the painting The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli, and by my own experiences while sleep paralyzed.