Eerie, Orie, Owre the Dam Lyrics
A Scots counting-out rhyme that crosses the dam, fills a bag and ends with black fish and white trout before saying who is out.
Eerie, Orie, Owre the Dam
Eerie, orie, owre the dam,
Fill your poke and let us gang;
Black fish and white trout,
Eerie, orie, you are out.
More verses from the original
Eerie, orie, owre the dam,
Fill your poke and let us gang;
Black fish and white trout,
Eerie, orie, you are out.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/eerie-orie-owre-the-dam/
- Type
- Counting Rhymes
- Tune
- Spoken counting-out rhyme
- Best for ages
- 4 to 8 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Fill your poke | Hold an imaginary bag open with both hands. |
| Black fish and white trout | Make a swimming fish with a flat hand, then a second one. |
What Does Eerie, Orie, Owre the Dam Mean?
In Scots, owre means over, a dam is a barrier across a stream, a poke is a bag and gang means go. So the lines say, in effect: over the dam, fill your bag and let us be off. Then comes a picture of black fish and white trout, which is probably just a nice contrast of dark and light, and the last line tells someone they are out.
It has more sense than most counting-out rhymes. Children might picture a morning of fishing at a stream, with a bag to fill and a long walk home.
History and Origin
Robert Ford prints it in Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories (1904), in a long section of Scottish counting-out rhymes, followed by another one about a ha'penny pudding. Ford does not give an exact date or place for this one.
The first words, Eerie, orie, are shared with a number of other rhymes of that kind that were gathered from Scottish children around the same period. They were likely the start of a family of rhymes with the same opening and different endings.
Learning Activities
- Fishing trip: draw a stream, a dam and two fish, one black and one white.
- Scots glossary: make word cards for owre, poke and gang with the English meaning on the back.
- Leader choosing: use the rhyme to pick the first player in a game.