✦ A Nursery Rhyme ✦
An old woman is tossed up in a basket seventeen times as high as the moon. Where is she going? To brush the cobwebs off the sky!
Read aloud by Storyland Classics ✦ 46 seconds ✦ Watch on YouTube
✦ The Rhyme ✦
Traditional English nursery rhyme. Public domain.
There was an old woman tossed up in a basket, Seventeen times as high as the moon; Where she was going I couldn’t but ask it, For in her hand she carried a broom. “Old woman, old woman, old woman,” quoth I, “Where are you going to up so high?” “To brush the cobwebs off the sky!” “May I go with you?” “Aye, by-and-by.”
✦ About the Rhyme ✦
This rhyme dates back to the 1700s and is one of the most magical in the Mother Goose collection. “Quoth I” is an old way of saying “I said,” and “aye” means yes.
The old woman flies higher than the moon with a broom to sweep the cobwebs from the sky, a lovely way to explain why the sky looks so clean and clear.
✦ Talk About It ✦