There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
"There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" (alternatively "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly", "There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly" and "I Know an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly") is a children's rhyme and nonsense song of a kind known as cumulative.

The song tells the nonsensical story of an old woman who swallows increasingly large animals, each to catch the previously swallowed animal, but dies after swallowing a horse. The humour of the song stems from the absurdity that the woman is able to inexplicably and impossibly swallow animals of preposterous sizes and survive. However, the addition of a horse is finally enough to kill her, unexpectedly applying some real-world logic to the song. The appeal to children stems from the idea that a fly can be swallowed by a human, as can a spider, but it gradually becomes clear that this is an amusingly nonsensical story. 

There are many variations of phrasing in the lyrics, especially for the description of swallowing each animal. The spider and fly are described in each verse, but the other animals are only described when they are introduced starting with the bird. Three versions of the rhyme were collected in the journal "Hoosier Folklore" in December 1947, beginning respectively "There was an old lady — she swallowed a fly", "Poor little old lady, she swallowed a fly" and "A little old lady swallowed a fly". All three list a progression from a fly to a horse, with variations in what animals are swallowed and the rhymes for each animal.

The definitive version was written by Rose Bonne (lyrics) and Canadian/English folk artist Alan Mills and copyrighted in 1952. At that time it was entitled simply "I Know an Old Lady." A widely distributed version of the song was released on Brunswick Records in 1953, where it was sung by Burl Ives. Ives' rendition appears on his album, "Folk Songs, Dramatic and Humorous"—which debuted in late summer, 1953. The 1961 illustrated book by Rose Bonne also indicates that the lyrics are hers, whereas the music was composed by Alan Mills.
Q178715
rhyme
Concept
Q17102166
nonsense song
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Q112762
cumulative
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Q2830559
Alan Mills
PER
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Brunswick Records
ORG
Q315723
Burl Ives
PER
Q602446
lyrics
Concept
Q753110
composed
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Q7782782
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
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1953
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