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Title: The Old Man And His Three Sons
Author: Anonymous (Poetry's author) [
More Titles by Anonymous (Poetry's author)]
[This traditional ditty is current as a nursery song in the North of England.]
There was an old man, and sons he had three, {1}
Wind well, Lion, good hunter.
A friar he being one of the three,
With pleasure he ranged the north country,
For he was a jovial hunter.
As he went to the woods some pastime to see,
Wind well, Lion, good hunter,
He spied a fair lady under a tree,
Sighing and moaning mournfully.
He was a jovial hunter.
'What are you doing, my fair lady!'
Wind well, Lion, good hunter.
'I'm frightened, the wild boar he will kill me,
He has worried my lord, and wounded thirty,
As thou art a jovial hunter.'
Then the friar he put his horn to his mouth,
Wind well, Lion, good hunter.
And he blew a blast, east, west, north, and south,
And the wild boar from his den he came forth
Unto the jovial hunter.
Footnote: {1}Three is a favourite number in the nursery rhymes. The
following is one of numerous examples:-
There was an old woman had three sons,
Jerry and James and John:
Jerry was hung, James was drowned,
John was lost and never was found;
And there was an end of her three sons,
Jerry, and James, and John!
[The end]
Anonymous's poem: Old Man And His Three Sons
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