labellementeuse: a girl sits at a desk in front of a window, chewing a pencil (Default)
worryingly jolly batman ([personal profile] labellementeuse) wrote2004-04-19 06:49 pm

nnnng.

For what seems like a very long time now, I've been looking for a complete text of the poem "my mother said I never should."
All I can remember of it goes thusly:

My mother said
I never should
play with the gypsies
in the wood.

If I did,
she would say
"Naughty child
to disobey."

...that's all. I have vague ideas that the rest talks about hair curling and going to sea... but I can't remember! Nor can I find the version I read. It's verr frustrating... I found a version which seems familiar, but is missing half of what I know:

GYPSIES IN THE WOOD
Anon

My mother said that I never should
Play with the gypsies in the wood,
The wood was dark; the grass was green;
In came Sally with a tambourine,
I went to the sea - no ship to get across;
I paid ten shillings for a blind white horse;
I up on his back and was off in a crack,
Sally, tell my mother I shall never come back

*complains loudly* Google is telling me that it's a clapping rhyme, so there are umpteen differnet versions. Sigh.

Still, I kinda like the version I found. SO that's poetry for today. :D