"One, Two, Three, Four, Five" | |
---|---|
Nursery rhyme | |
Published | c. 1765 |
"One, Two, Three, Four, Five" (also known as "1, 2, 3, 4, 5" or "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I Caught a Fish Alive" in other versions) is a nursery rhyme and counting-out rhyme. [1] It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13530. [2]
A common modern version is:
One, two, three, four, five,
Once I caught a fish alive.
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
Then I let it go again.
Why did you let it go?
Because he bit my finger so.
Which finger did it bite?
This little finger on my right. [3]
This is one of many counting-out rhymes. It was first recorded in Mother Goose's Melody around 1765. Like most versions until the late 19th century, it had only the first stanza and dealt with a hare, not a fish, with the words:
The modern version is derived from three variations collected by Henry Bolton in the 1880s from America. [1]
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