One of the best-known nursery rhymes in English, built around a pie full of singing blackbirds and a royal household going about its day. The tune and rhythm are irresistible, though the final image, of a blackbird snapping at the maid, might raise an eyebrow.
Sung to its own well-known tune.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye;
Four-and-twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie!
When the pie was opened
The birds began to sing;
Was not that a dainty dish
To set before the king?
The king was in his counting-house,
Counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlor,
Eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes;
When down came a blackbird
And snapped off her nose.
How it's usually said today
Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened
The birds began to sing;
Wasn't that a dainty dish
To set before the king?
The king was in his counting house,
Counting out his money,
The queen was in the parlour,
Eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes,
When down came a blackbird
And pecked off her nose.
Traditional rhymes have no single fixed text. The main version on this page is as printed in our source edition; this one is the wording most people say today.
About this rhyme
First printed around 1744, in an early nursery collection, with rougher words than the ones we sing now. Here is a true detail behind the oddest line. Cooks really did once hide live birds under a pie crust so they would fly out when it was cut, a table trick written down in old recipe books. The rest, the counting-house, the bread and honey, is just a bright little scene. The pirate and royal theories are guesses.
Count on your fingers through the twenty-four blackbirds, then throw both hands wide when the pie is opened and the birds fly. Children wait for that moment. A good one for a mealtime, and long enough to carry a fidgety few minutes.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition