The "Farmyard Song" (Roud number 544) is a cumulative song about livestock, originating in the British Isles and also known in North America.
Contents
It is known by various titles, such as:
Summary
In the first verse, the narrator tells of buying or having a rooster, cat, horse or other animal, feeding them under a tree, and the call the animal makes. Each subsequent verse introduces a new animal, then repeats the calls of the animals from previous verses.
Versions
There were several versions known in the Thames Valley in the early part of the 20th century. A version collected in Bampton, Oxfordshire around 1916 began as follows:
Musicologists Loraine Wyman and Howard Brockway collected "The Barnyard Song" in Kentucky in 1916. This version began,
Some American variants are not cumulative, but instead group all the animal calls together at the end of the song.