Satirical print from 1830 depicting a goose lamenting the loss of the Commons to Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, 1st Baronet, a Duke and King William IV.
As an orally transmitted folk poem, it is found in various forms and variations. It is estimated to have been composed in the mid to late 18th century.[2][3]It is found recorded in magazines as early as 1810,[4] with its first recorded attestation in a 4 stanza form in 1821.[5]
The poem has had an enduring presence in English oral tradition, being often quoted or referenced in discussions and debates around inclosure, including on more than one occasion in the houses of parliament.[6] Today, the poem is often referenced in connection to the privatization of common resources, not just land, such as seed genetics,[7] the human genome[8] and publicly funded research.[9]
The poem generally consists of pairs of rhyming couplets, sometimes one stanza only, and sometimes in a longer variant.
Text
the 4 stanza version is most often quoted as follows:
The law locks up the man or woman Who steals the goose from off the common But leaves the greater villain loose Who steals the common from the goose.
The law demands that we atone When we take things we do not own But leaves the lords and ladies fine Who take things that are yours and mine.
The poor and wretched don’t escape If they conspire the law to break; This must be so but they endure Those who conspire to make the law.
The law locks up the man or woman Who steals the goose from off the common And geese will still a common lack Till they go and steal it back
The poem is also often found in a shorter forms, often one stanza only, as above, and with a few variations, such as:
A sin it is in man or woman To steal a goose from off a common; But he doth sin without excuse Who steals the common from the goose [10][11]
Another, which similarly focuses on the comparatively morality of the act, rather than degree of earthly punishment:
The crime is great, in man or woman, Who steals a goose from off a common; But surely ’tis a worse abuse. To steal the common from the goose
—found in a letter to the London Express, 1848[12]
One of the earliest recorded attestations in any form, found in The Monthly Magazine, 1810:[4]
A HINT to the promoters of enclosures.
THE fault is great in man or woman, Who steals a goose from off a common; But who can plead that man's excuse, Who steals the common from the goose?
Derivative works
The posthumously released 2014 compilation album Rarities Volumes 1 & 2 by experimental musician Lindsay Cooper features "The Song of the Goose and the Common" which features lyrics adapted from the poem.
In the 2019 album Enclosure by The Askew Sisters, the poem is sung accompanied by cello and triangle in the track "Goose and Common".[13]
The 2020 music video, "The Goose and the Common", a collaboration between Shadab Shayegan (director, animation) and Heaven Sent Cat (music), has the poem fully included within the lyrics.[14]
In 2023, Helen Bell set the poem to a newly composed melody and added her own new chorus lyric ("Who remembers when...?"), releasing a video in which it is sung by two voices, accompanied by two violas.[15]
The 2025 novel Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, part of The Hunger Games series, sees the character Lenore Dove put the poem to music as she sings about her corrupt and greedy government.[16]
↑ The Express. London, Middlesex, UK. January 13, 1848. Pg. 3. Found in a letter to the editor on the topic of inclosures in surrey. Accessed at NewspaperArchive.com
↑ Collins, Suzanne (2025). Sunrise on the reaping. A hunger games novel. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN978-1-5461-7146-1.
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