A traditional nursery rhyme for children.

From this nursery rhyme, Lewis Caroll got his idea for one of the characters in his book "Alice in Wonderland", and the theft narrated here also appears at the end of the book as a full episode.

This rhyme is usually sang to a tune, though there are lots of different melodies for this.

The Queen of Hearts
She made some tarts,
All on a summer's day.

The Knave of Hearts,
He stole the tarts,
And took them clean away.

The King of Hearts
Called for the tarts,
And beat the Knave full sore.

The Knave of Hearts
Brought back the tarts,
And vowed he'd steal no more.

THE QUEEN OF HEARTS= One of the playing cards in a cards deck, corresponding to the letter Q (see picture)

TARTS= Little cakes.

THE KNAVE OF HEARTS= Another card corresponding to the letter J (see picture). Also, a knave is a male servant, in this case, working for the king

TOOK THEM CLEAN AWAY= Took them completely away.
In informal English, we can use CLEAN as an adverb meaning of "completely and thoroughly":
- The car hit him clean off the ground
- She ran clean around the garden
- Sorry, I clean forgot to call you
- The bullet went clean through his shoulder

THE KING OF HEARTS= Another card, letter K.

CALLED FOR THE TARTS= Ordered the tarts back (asked his soldiers to find the tarts and bring them back)

BEAT= Hit, punish by hitting.

FULL SORE= If you hit someone full sore, you hit them so many times that you leave them completely sore (hurting).

VOWED= Promised.