Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.

There Was Three Birds

Anonymous

(From Merry Drollery, 1661) THERE was three birds that built very low,
The first and the second cry’d, have at her toe,
The third went merrily in and in, in,
And the third went merrily in;
O never went Wimble in timber more nimble	5
With so little screwing and knocking on’t in,
With so little knocking in.
There was three birds [that] built on a pin,
The first and second cry’d, have at her shin,
The third he went merrily in and in, in,	10
The third he went merrily in;
O never went Wimble in timber more nimble
With so little screwing and knocking on’t in,
With so little knocking in.
There was three birds that built on a tree,	15
The first and the second cry’d, have at her knee,
And the third he went merrily in and in, in,
And the third he went merrily in;
O never went Wimble in timber more nimble
With so little screwing and knocking on’t in,	20
With so little knocking in.
There was three birds that built very high,
The first and the second cried, have at her thigh,
The third he went merrily in and in, in,
The third he went merrily in;	25
O never went Wimble in timber more nimble
With so little screwing and knocking on’t in,
With so little knocking in.
There was three birds that built on a stump,
The first and the second cry’d, have at her rump,	30
The third he went merrily in and in, in,
And the third he went merrily in;
O never went Wimble in timber more nimble
With so little screwing, and knocking on’t in,
With so little knocking in.	35