“The Farmer in the Dell” describes a circle singing game: one player at a time is chosen to join a growing group in the middle, until the cheese is left alone at the end of the familiar sequence. A dell is a small valley. The game’s instructions give no reason to read the cheese or the valley as symbols.
What the lyrics describe
The song is a sequence of choices in a game, rather than a self-contained story with one fixed set of words. In the common version described by the King County Library System, the farmer takes a wife, the wife takes a child, the child takes a dog, the dog takes a cat, the cat takes a rat, and the rat takes the cheese. Each newly chosen character joins the group in the center of the circle. King County Library System: “The Farmer in the Dell”
At the end, the other players form the circle again while the player chosen as the cheese remains by themself. “The cheese stands alone” therefore describes that player’s position in the game. The available game instructions do not assign the line a hidden allegorical meaning.
What “dell” means
A dell is a small valley. The word gives the song a simple setting; the game instructions do not explain it as a symbol or attach a deeper significance to the landscape. Mama Lisa’s World: “The Farmer in the Dell”
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How the game can end differently
The familiar stand-alone ending is not the only recorded way to play. A performance in the John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection at Lyon College, recorded from Mr. and Mrs. F. E. Ash in Evening Shade, Arkansas, on June 30, 1959, uses “Hi ho the cherry-o.” Mrs. Ash describes the ring opening so the cheese can run; the person who catches the cheese becomes the next farmer. John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection, Lyon College: Ash performance
| Version | Refrain | Ending described |
|---|---|---|
| King County Library System instructions | “Hi-ho the dairy-o” | The other players reform the ring while the cheese stays alone. Source |
| F. E. Ash performance, Arkansas, recorded June 30, 1959 | “Hi ho the cherry-o” | The cheese runs when the ring opens; whoever catches it becomes the next farmer. Source |
These are examples of variation, not competing versions with one universally correct ending. Wording and performance can differ by community; a local chase rule should not be treated as part of every performance.
Where the song comes from
The historical reference The Book of World-Famous Music, third edition (1985), identifies April 30, 1883, as the date of the earliest known English-language printing of the music and words. It attributes that record to William Wells Newell’s Games and Songs of American Children and reports that Newell noted the game being sung and played on New York streets. This chronology is what the reference reports; the original Newell book is not independently available in the sources linked here. The Book of World-Famous Music, third edition
The same historical reference points to a German children’s game, Der Kirmessbauer, in Eduard Fiedler’s 1847 collection, and describes the English-language game as likely derived from Germany. That is a proposed connection, not a proven account of exactly how the song traveled or changed.
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Why versions vary
Children’s songs often circulate with their words and tunes adapted or rearranged. A scholarly article on English-Canadian children’s songs discusses “The Farmer in the Dell” as an example of a repeated textual and musical pattern, and reports that a similar text and tune appear in Britain, with related versions circulating across Britain, Canada, and the United States. That broader pattern helps explain why refrain wording or a game’s final action may differ without one version making the others wrong. Studies in Canadian Literature: article on English-Canadian children’s songs
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