Atisket, Atasket (I Sent a Letter to My Love)

DESCRIPTION: "Atisket, Atasket (or: I tisket, I tasket"), A green and yellow basket, I (wrote/sent) a letter to my love And on the way I dropped it." "A little puppy picked it up And put it in his pocket, It isn't you, it isn't you, But it is *you*."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Illustrated National Nursery Songs and Games)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,So) Britain(England(North,South)) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 59-60=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 216-218, "Itiskit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 77-78, "Kitty, Kitty Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #117, "Hunt the Squirrel" (1 text, 1 tune, with the tune being "Itisket" but the game being "Hunt the Squirrel")
Solomon-ZickaryZan, pp. 27-28, "Drop-the-Handkerchief" (1 text)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 107, "(A tisket, a tasket)" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 282-284, "Itiskit, Itaskit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 30, ""I sent a letter to my love"; "I had a little dog"; "Lucy Locket" (3 texts, the first being of the "Atisket, Atasket (I Sent a Letter to My Love)" type, the second of the "Hunt the Squirrel" type, the third being "Lucy Locket," but all apparently used for the same game)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 116-117, "I Sent a Letter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 50, "(I wrote a letter to my love)" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 113-114, "Atisket, Atasket"
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #260, "Itisket, itasket, a green and yellow basket" (1 text); cf. #26, "A tisket, a tasket, Hitler's in his casket" (1 text, clearly adapted, but so rarely found that it probably doesn't deserve to be considered an independent song)
cf. Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 806, "Hunt the Squirrel (Itisket, Itasket)" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #630, p. 250, "(I sent a letter to m love)"
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke, _Red Rover, Red Rover: Children's Games Played in Canada_, pp. 56-57, "Drop the Handkerchief" (scattered lyrics with description of the game)
ST BAF806A (Full)
Roud #13188
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hunt the Squirrel" (floating lyrics, playparty form)
NOTES [221 words]: There is confusion about the origin of this piece. Botkin links it to the playparty "Hunt the Squirrel." There is, however, no lyric similarity; the point of contact is that both are used with the English "drop glove" game. (For other "Drop Glove" verses, which actually mention gloves, see Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #647, p. 258, "(I've a glove in my hand).")
Fuld explicitly denies the English connection, pointing our that the earliest appearance was in Rosenwig's 1879 collection, where it was titled "I Sent a Letter to My Love." Even there, however, it is listed without an author. The Rosenwig text does not contain the "Atisket" words; these are first mentioned by Hofer in 1901.
It can be said that the two songs have cross-fertilized; see the "little dog at home" stanza, found in both "hunt the squirrel" and "Atisket."
The pop version of this song, of course, was recorded by Ella Fitzgerald and titled "A-Tisket, A-Tasket"; it was credited to Fitzgerald and Al Feldman. Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 433, estimates that this was the seventh most popular song in America in 1938, peaking at #1 in August 1938 (#1 for the year being Larry Clinton's "My Reverie," based on a theme by Debussy). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BAF806A

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