✦ A Nursery Rhyme ✦
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?
Read aloud by Storyland Classics ✦ 1 min 08 sec ✦ Watch on YouTube
✦ The Rhyme ✦
Traditional English nursery rhyme. Public domain.
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?
The king was in his counting-house, Counting out his money; The queen was in the parlour, Eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden, Hanging out the clothes, When down came a blackbird And pecked off her nose.
✦ About the Rhyme ✦
“Sing a Song of Sixpence” was printed in 1744. A sixpence was a small silver coin, and rye is a grain used to make bread.
Birds that fly out of a pie sound like pure nonsense, but cooks at grand old feasts really did sometimes hide live birds under a pie crust as a surprise for guests. The blackbird’s peck at the maid’s nose makes a funny ending that children love to act out.
✦ Talk About It ✦