The most famous cumulative rhyme in the English language, building link by link from a house and some malt through a rat, a cat, a dog, a cow, and eventually a whole wedding party. Each verse adds one more line to remember, which makes it a fine memory game as well as a read-aloud.
Spoken. A memory game that grows by one line each round.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
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 the 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.
SATURDAY, SUNDAY
On Saturday night
Shall be all my care
To powder my locks
And curl my hair.
On Sunday morning
My love will come in.
When he will marry me
With a gold ring.
About this rhyme
A cumulative rhyme · Printed by the mid-1700s
A cumulative rhyme, printed in England by the middle of the 1700s. It has an older cousin in Chad Gadya, a chant sung at the end of the Passover meal that stacks up the same way, each new line piling on top of the last. Whether ours descends from it or the two simply share a shape, folklorists have argued a long time. Either way the trick is identical: build a chain, never drop a link.
Less a bedtime rhyme than a game. Count the links on your fingers as you go, or point at each thing, so the growing chain has somewhere to live. Let the child chime in on the parts they know and catch you when you skip one. Older children will race you to the end. It fills a car journey or a wait for tea nicely.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition