The forgotten world of counting-out rhymes

Abstract

For many decades, counting-out rhymes used to set the rules of courtyard plays, and hierarchy amidst the youngest. They frequently were children’s heated comments on events in the world of adults. Their slow decline is connected with the beginning of the Internet era. The last generation active in creation and application of counting-out rhymes were those born in the first half of the 1980’s. After this generation, this poetry of the clearest waters, full of absurd and paradoxes, started to decline. When talking about this amateur artistic activity, one has to mention the socialising role of the old relations in Polish courtyards.