Outsider Poems, A Mini-Anthology in Progress (24): Songs of Experience & Desperation, from The Real Mother Goose

OLD CHAIRS TO MEND

If I'd as much money as I could spend,
I never would cry old chairs to mend;
Old chairs to mend, old chairs to mend;
I never would cry old chairs to mend.

If I'd as much money as I could tell,
I never would cry old clothes to sell;
Old clothes to sell, old clothes to sell;
I never would cry old clothes to sell.

HEIGH-HO, THE CARRION CROW

A carrion crow sat on an oak,
Fol de riddle, lol de riddle, hi ding do,
Watching a tailor shape his cloak;
Sing heigh-ho, the carrion crow,
Fol de riddle, lol de riddle, hi ding do!

Wife, bring me my old bent bow,
Fol de riddle, lol de riddle, hi ding do,
That I may shoot yon carrion crow;
Sing heigh-ho, the carrion crow,
Fol de riddle, lol de riddle, hi ding do!

The tailor he shot, and missed his mark,
Fol de riddle, lol de riddle, hi ding do!
And shot his own sow quite through the heart;
Sing heigh-ho, the carrion crow,
Fol de riddle, lol de riddle, hi ding do!

Wife! bring brandy in a spoon,
Fol de riddle, lol de riddle, hi ding do!
For our old sow is in a swoon;
Sing heigh-ho, the carrion crow,
Fol de riddle, lol de riddle, hi ding do!

SEE-SAW

See-saw, Margery Daw,
Sold her bed and lay upon straw.

THE OLD WOMAN AND THE PEDLAR

There was an old woman, as I've heard tell,
She went to market her eggs for to sell;
She went to market all on a market-day,
And she fell asleep on the King's highway.

There came by a pedlar whose name was Stout,
He cut her petticoats all round about;
He cut her petticoats up to the knees,
Which made the old woman to shiver and freeze.

When the little old woman first did wake,
She began to shiver and she began to shake;
She began to wonder and she began to cry,
"Lauk a mercy on me, this can't be I!

"But if I be I, as I hope it be,
I've a little dog at home, and he'll know me;
If it be I, he'll wag his little tail,
And if it be not I, he'll loudly bark and wail."

Home went the little woman all in the dark;
Up got the little dog, and he began to bark;
He began to bark, so she began to cry,
"Lauk a mercy on me, this is none of I!"

HARK! HARK!

Hark, hark! the dogs do bark!
Beggars are coming to town:
Some in jags, and some in rags
And some in velvet gown

THE THREE SONS

There was an old woman had three sons,
Jerry and James and John,
Jerry was hanged, James was drowned,
John was lost and never was found;
And there was an end of her three sons,
Jerry and James and John!

THE BELLS

"You owe me five shillings,"
Say the bells of St. Helen's.
"When will you pay me?"
Say the bells of Old Bailey.
"When I grow rich,"
Say the bells of Shoreditch.
"When will that be?"
Say the bells of Stepney.
"I do not know,"
Says the great Bell of Bow.
"Two sticks in an apple,"
Ring the bells of Whitechapel.
"Halfpence and farthings,"
Say the bells of St. Martin's.
"Kettles and pans,"
Say the bells of St. Ann's.
"Brickbats and tiles,"
Say the bells of St. Giles.
"Old shoes and slippers,"
Say the bells of St. Peter's.
"Pokers and tongs,"
Say the bells of St. John's.

THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN (1)

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children she didn't know what to do.
She gave them some broth without any bread.
She whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN (2)

There was an old woman
And nothing she had,
And so this old woman
Was said to be mad.
She’d nothing to eat,
She’d nothing to wear,
She’d nothing to lose,
She’d nothing to fear,
She’d nothing to ask,
She’d nothing to give,
And when she did die
She’d nothing to leave.

FOR EVERY EVIL

For every evil under the sun
There is a remedy or there is none.
If there be one, seek till you find it;
If there be none, never mind it.

COMMENTARY

Embedded within the repertory of British Mother Goose rhymes is a stratum of outsider or folk poetry that displays a sharp sense of the everyday desperation of a significant part of the population from which the poems derive. The rhymes, some of which carry the full charge of an actual poetry, have their counterparts in European tales of mère l'oye compiled since the 17th century by Charles Perrault & others. If later versions show a marked bowdlerization & infantilizing, it may be possible to note a more significant continuity in Blake’s Songs of Innocence & Experience:

When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!
So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.

or by something of a stretch in Edward Lear’s equally remarkable limericks (“surrealist in nonsense” – A. Breton):

There was an Old Man of Whitehaven,
Who danced a quadrille with a raven;
But they said, “It's absurd
To encourage this bird!”
So they smashed that Old Man of Whitehaven.

Writes Robert Darnton in summary: “All is not jollity in Mother Goose. The older rhymes belong to an older world of poverty, despair, and death.” (From “Peasants Tell Tales: The Meaning of Mother Goose,” in The Great Cat Massacre (Basic Books, Inc., 1984.)