Burl Ives — Mother Goose Song
As I did walk by Hampstead Fair
I came upon Mother Goose — so I turned her loose —
she was screaming.
And a foreign student said to me —
was it really true there are elephants and lions too
in Piccadilly Circus?
Walked down by the bathing pond
to try and catch some sun.
Saw at least a hundred schoolgirls sobbing
into hankerchiefs as one.
I don’t believe they knew
I was a schoolboy.
And a bearded lady said to me —
if you start your raving and your misbehaving —
you’ll be sorry.
Then the chicken-fancier came to play —
with his long red beard (and his sister’s weird:
she drives a lorry).
Laughed down by the putting green —
I popped `em in their holes.
Four and twenty labourers were labouring —
digging up their gold.
I don’t believe they knew
that I was Long John Silver.
Saw Johnny Scarecrow make his rounds
in his jet-black mac (which he won’t give back) —
stole it from a snow man.
