There Was a King and He Had Three Daughters Lyrics
A tall tale about a king and his three daughters in a basin of water, finished off early because the basin bends.
There Was a King and He Had Three Daughters
There was a king and he had three daughter,
And they all lived in a basin of water;
The basin bended,
My story's ended.
If the basin had been stronger,
My story would have been longer.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/there-was-a-king-and-he-had-three-daughters/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- Tune
- Spoken like a story ending, with a wink
- Best for ages
- 3 to 7 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| The basin bended | Lean to one side with arms curved round like a bowl. |
| My story's ended | Clap once and open both hands wide. |
What Does There Was a King and He Had Three Daughters Mean?
The rhyme is a joke about stories that stop short. It starts like the opening of a tale, with a king and three daughters, and then the picture goes wrong: they all live in a basin of water. The basin bends, the story ends, and the speaker explains that a stronger basin would have made a longer story.
The pairs bended with ended, and stronger with longer, rhyme when said aloud. Nursery rhymes like this were handy at the end of a story, when the teller wanted a neat close.
History and Origin
Halliwell collected the rhyme as a six-line verse. His first line reads three daughter, without the s, though the second line speaks of them together; the title here uses the plural. The teller ends by explaining why the story is so short, which makes it a rhyme about the story itself.
Learning Activities
- Longer story: pretend the basin was stronger and make up a longer tale about the king and his daughters.
- Water play: float three small toys in a basin of water and watch which ones float and which ones sink.