One, Two, Three, Four, Five - Composition

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"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 popular English language nursery rhyme and counting-out rhyme.[1] It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13530.

"One, Two, Three, Four, Five"
Nursery rhyme
Published	c. 1765
Composer(s)	Traditional

Lyrics

Common modern versions include:

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.[2]

Origins and meaning

Illustration of the poem from the 1901 Book of Nursery Rhymes — Illustration of the poem from the 1901 *Book of Nursery Rhymes*

The rhyme is one of many counting-out rhymes. It was first recorded in Mother Goose's Melody around 1765. Like most versions until the late nineteenth century, it had only the first stanza, and dealt with a hare not a fish, with the words:

One, two, three, Four and five,

I caught a hare alive;

Six, seven, eight, Nine and ten,

I let him go again.[1]

The modern version is derived from three variations collected by Henry Bolton in the 1880s from America.[1]

Notes

I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 334-5.
Lansky, Vicki (1 February 2009). Games Babies Play: From Birth to Twelve Months. Book Peddlers. p. 76. ISBN 9781931863650.

Lyrics

Origins and meaning

Notes

See also