There Was a Young Lady of Bute Lyrics
A young lady of Bute plays a silver-gilt flute. She plays several jigs, but her audience is her uncle's white pigs, and the poem labels her amusing.
There Was a Young Lady of Bute
There was a Young Lady of Bute,
Who played on a silver-gilt flute;
She played several jigs,
To her uncle's white pigs,
That amusing Young Lady of Bute.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/there-was-a-young-lady-of-bute/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Edward Lear
- Tune
- Lively and jiggy, with a bounce on the pigs
- Best for ages
- 4 to 9 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Who played on a silver-gilt flute; | Hold an imaginary flute and wiggle your fingers. |
| To her uncle's white pigs, | Make a snout with your nose and give a small snort. |
What Does There Was a Young Lady of Bute Mean?
The joke is the audience. A flute player usually plays for people, but this lady plays several jigs for her uncle's white pigs. A jig is a quick, lively dance tune. Silver-gilt means silver covered with a thin layer of gold, so the flute is a fancy one. The poem calls her amusing, which is the word that makes the picture funny: she is so cheerful about it.
It is a limerick of five lines, where Bute, flute and the last Bute rhyme, and jigs and pigs rhyme in the middle. The last line repeats the first line's place name with a describing word, which is how many of Lear's limericks end. Bute is the name of a place in Scotland.
History and Origin
Edward Lear's The Book of Nonsense is dedicated to the great-grandchildren, grand-nephews and grand-nieces of Edward, 13th Earl of Derby, and its dedication says the greater part of it was first made and composed for their parents.
Learning Activities
- Pig audience: play a tune on a toy flute or a paper tube to a toy pig, and clap at the end.
- Jig dance: put on lively music and dance a jig together.
- Describing word: think of a new word for the last line, such as cheerful or brave.
- Draw the farm: draw a lady with a flute and a row of white pigs.