A neat little verse about an old woman whose expensive parrot never stops talking, much to her own annoyance. A gentle joke that plays well aloud.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
There was an old woman of Gloucester,
Whose parrot two guineas it cost her,
But its tongue never ceasing,
Was vastly displeasing
To the talkative woman of Gloucester.
About this rhyme
A guinea was a real, valuable English coin (21 shillings); two guineas was a notable sum for the period. · Text matches: parrot's ceaseless tongue displeases 'the talkative woman of Gloucester.'
An old woman of Gloucester pays two guineas, a serious sum, for a parrot that never stops talking, and lives to regret every penny of it. The joke is entirely in the timing: a chatterbox owner undone by an even worse chatterbox bird. Do the parrot's voice non-stop and stop dead on 'the talkative woman.'
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition