My Father He Left Me Three Acres of Land Lyrics
A singer inherits three acres and sets about farming them in the silliest ways: ploughing with a ram's horn, sowing a peppercorn and reaping with a penknife.
My Father He Left Me Three Acres of Land
My father he left me three acres of land,
Sing ivy, sing ivy;
My father he left me three acres of land,
Sing holly, go whistle, and ivy!
I ploughed it with a ram's horn,
Sing ivy, sing ivy;
And sowed it all over with one peppercorn,
Sing holly, go whistle, and ivy!
I harrowed it with a bramble bush,
Sing ivy, sing ivy;
And reaped it with my little pen-knife,
Sing holly, go whistle, and ivy!
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/my-father-he-left-me-three-acres-of-land/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- Tune
- Sung with the refrain 'Sing ivy' repeated in each verse
- Best for ages
- 3 to 8 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| I ploughed it with a ram's horn | Curl a hand by your head like a ram's horn, then push it forward like a plough. |
| And sowed it all over with one peppercorn | Pinch your finger and thumb and drop one tiny pretend seed. |
| And reaped it with my little pen-knife | Make tiny snipping motions with two fingers. |
What Does My Father He Left Me Three Acres of Land Mean?
The joke is that every tool is wrong for the job. A real farmer needs a plough, a lot of seed, a harrow and a sickle, and the singer uses a ram's horn, a single peppercorn, a bramble bush to rake over the soil, and a little pen-knife to cut the crop. A peppercorn is one dried pepper berry, tiny enough to hold between two fingers.
The refrain Sing ivy comes in the second line of every verse, and the last line of each verse is a chant, Sing holly, go whistle, and ivy. The refrain makes it a song for singing together.
History and Origin
Walter Jerrold's The Big Book of Nursery Rhymes (1903) prints the song under the title Sing Ivy. It has three verses of four lines.
Learning Activities
- Silly farm tools: think of other wrong tools for ploughing, sowing and reaping, and add a verse.
- Plant one seed: sow a single seed in a small pot and watch what a tiny start can do.
- Refrain chorus: sing the refrain together after each line.
- Acre measure: pace out a small patch in the garden or hall and imagine it as a field.