Yeah, but that little rhyme is hardly teaching people how to deal with it, is it? It's basically saying "shut up or I'll beat you with sticks, you wuss".

I always read it as "I can ignore what you say, you stupid person".

OTOH, bones heal but emotional abuse can produce bitterness that lasts for years.

I wish, while lying in a broken heap, people had just verbally ripped me to shreds instead.

Maybe I'm just good at shaking things off.

I was physically and mentally abused by my mothers' partner - obviously both forms of abuse come in varying degrees, but it was always the mental abuse that was the most lasting - bruises and other things healed and were something tangible for me to hate him for, something I could show another person and say 'look what this person did to me', but no-one can relate to the mental abuse of threats, the things said to and about you that bury deep into your psyche and torture you even when you are far away from that person. The times he beat and hurt me hurt at the time, but I cannot feel them now, but the things he said and the way that he made me an outcast in my family and made me run away still hurt me now and still have their consequences until today.

I don't know, I've seen many sci-fi films and comics where words can send you to sleep, make you bleed out of your ears and nose and kill you. More research needs to be done. ("We agree," - US Defense Department)