This Is the House That Jack Built
The classic cumulative rhyme that grows verse by verse from malt to farmer
Listen
Arrangement: Ian J. Watts / Mike Wilbury · Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks
Lyrics
This is the house that Jack built.
This is the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the rat
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the cat
That killed the rat
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the dog
That worried the cat
That killed the rat
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog
That worried the cat
That killed the rat
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the maiden all forlorn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog
That worried the cat
That killed the rat
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the man all tattered and torn
That kissed the maiden all forlorn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog
That worried the cat
That killed the rat
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the priest all shaven and shorn
That married the man all tattered and torn
That kissed the maiden all forlorn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog
That worried the cat
That killed the rat
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the cock that crowed in the morn
That waked the priest all shaven and shorn
That married the man all tattered and torn
That kissed the maiden all forlorn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog
That worried the cat
That killed the rat
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the farmer sowing his corn
That kept the cock that crowed in the morn
That waked the priest all shaven and shorn
That married the man all tattered and torn
That kissed the maiden all forlorn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog
That worried the cat
That killed the rat
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built!
Traditional lyrics — public domain. Arrangement © Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks.
History & Background
History & Origin
"This Is the House That Jack Built" is one of the great cumulative rhymes in the English language, building verse by verse from a simple house to a whole rural community, each new element connected by a chain of relative clauses that grows with every stanza.
The rhyme was first printed in 1755, in a collection published by John Newbery, though it almost certainly predates that publication. Some scholars have suggested that the structure derives from a Hebrew cumulative song, "Had Gadya," which appears in the Passover Haggadah, but the English rhyme has long since established its own distinct identity.
What gives the rhyme its enduring power is the cumulative chain itself, which the listener must hold in memory as it grows. By the final verse, the farmer is connected back to the house through ten intermediate links — cock, priest, man, maiden, cow, dog, cat, rat, malt — each one causally related to the next. It is, in its way, a miniature picture of an entire rural world, held together by the house that Jack built.
