Page 29 - English Expedition Class 2

4 The Old Woman

Mother Goose is the supposed author of a great collection of rhymes and fairy tales. Some
poems from the Mother Goose collection are ‘Hey, Diddle, Diddle’, ‘Baa, Baa, Black Sheep’,
‘Twinkle Twinkle’ and ‘Tweedledum & Tweedledee’.

1
There was an old woman tossed up in a basket,
Seventeen times as high as the moon.
Where she was going I just had to ask it,

For in her hand she carried a broom.

‘Old woman, old woman, old woman,’ said I,
‘Please tell me, please tell me, why you’re up so high!’
2
‘To sweep the cobwebs from the sky,
3
And I’ll be with you by and by .’

A Mother Goose rhyme

1 tossed up: thrown up in the air 3 by and by: soon
2 cobweb: a spider’s web when old and dusty
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