There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly
The cumulative tale of increasingly unfortunate dietary choices
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Arrangement: Ian J. Watts / Mike Wilbury · Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks
Lyrics
There was an old woman who swallowed a fly,
I don't know why she swallowed the fly — perhaps she'll die!
There was an old woman who swallowed a spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her;
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed the fly — perhaps she'll die!
There was an old woman who swallowed a bird;
How absurd to swallow a bird!
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her;
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed the fly — perhaps she'll die!
There was an old woman who swallowed a cat;
Imagine that, to swallow a cat!
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her;
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed the fly — perhaps she'll die!
There was an old woman who swallowed a dog;
What a hog, to swallow a dog!
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her;
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed the fly — perhaps she'll die!
There was an old woman who swallowed a goat,
Just opened her throat and swallowed a goat!
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her;
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed the fly — perhaps she'll die!
There was an old woman who swallowed a cow,
I don't know how she swallowed a cow!
She swallowed the cow to catch the goat,
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her;
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed the fly — perhaps she'll die!
There was an old woman who swallowed a horse...
She's dead, of course!
Traditional lyrics — public domain. Arrangement © Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks.
History & Background
History & Origin
"There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly" is one of the great cumulative nonsense songs of the English language. The song is most commonly attributed to Alan Mills and Rose Bonne, who published it in 1952, though the origins may be older. It follows the classic cumulative structure: each verse adds a new animal, swallowed to catch the previous one, and the chain is repeated in full before the new animal is named.
The song works by building absurdity to an almost logical conclusion. The woman begins with a fly, moves through a spider, a bird, a cat, a dog, a goat and a cow, and each new animal is explained by the last — until the whole construction collapses magnificently with the horse: "She's dead, of course!" The deadpan delivery of that final couplet is part of what makes the song so satisfying.
The phrase "wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her" is one of the most memorable lines in children's music, and the rhythm of the cumulative chain makes each successive verse slightly more breathless than the last. This recording brings plenty of energy to the escalating sequence.
