Friday, October 23, 2009

Sing a song…

...of sixpence
a pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds,
baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened,
the birds began to sing;
Wasn’t that a dainty dish,
to set before the king?

Now I always thought that this was just a nursery rhyme, but it appears that it was done as amusement in the 16th century. 
4x6-1009 2115 4x6-1009 21124x6-1009 2117
4x6-1009 21074x6-1009 21234x6-1009 2124
4x6-1009 2118 4x6-1009 2119 4x6-1009 2120

2 comments:

Jenn said...

Cool!!!

Zelda said...

The rest of the rhyme:

The King was in his countinghouse,
Counting out his money;
The Queen was in the parlor
Eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes.
When along came a black bird
And snipped off her nose!

History:

First published in 1744, the rhyme is one of many rhymes depicting bakers putting "suprises" in baked items.