“Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary”

Cultural  

1. A nursery rhyme:

   Mary, Mary, quite contrary,

   How does your garden grow?

   With silver bells, and cockleshells,

   And pretty maids all in a row.

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Example Sentences

When Sybil died at the age of 91 in 2021, the Mary Mary Quite Contrary egg in blue and white paper remained intact, complete with a decorative garden scene of a little girl with a watering can.

From BBC

“A lot of the younger children don’t know the fairy tales and many of the nursery rhymes any more. A lot of little kids that come through here will look at ‘Mary, Mary Quite Contrary’ and they don’t have a clue what ‘Mary, Mary Quite Contrary’ is.

From Washington Times

“Mary, Mary, quite contrary How does your garden grow? With silver bells, and cockle shells, And pretty maids all in a row.”

From Los Angeles Times

“Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your fortune grow?” asks one ad.

From MSNBC

“Headin’ for the Top Now,” a long song with a Velvet Underground eighth-note stomp and improvised guitar-strafing throughout, ends with women’s voices, light and sweet, singing a corrupted nursery rhyme: “Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your future go?/Backstreet dealin’, midnight stealin’, oh does your mother know?”

From New York Times