Three Wise Men of Gotham Lyrics
Three "wise" men go to sea in a bowl, and the rhyme stops short because the bowl was not strong enough. Gotham is a real village in England, and the name later traveled all the way to New York and Batman.
Three Wise Men of Gotham
Three wise men of Gotham
Went to sea in a bowl;
If the bowl had been stronger
My song had been longer.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/three-wise-men-of-gotham/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- Tune
- Spoken rhyme
- Best for ages
- 4 to 9 years
What Does Three Wise Men of Gotham Mean?
The joke is that these wise men are anything but wise. Sailing in a bowl is a foolish idea, and the singer admits that if the bowl had been stronger, the song would have been longer. Children usually enjoy spotting the silliness, and the ending is best read as "and that was the end of their trip".
History and Origin
Gotham is a village in Nottinghamshire, England. From the Middle Ages its people were the subject of funny stories about foolish behavior, collected in a popular 1500s book of Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham. Local legend says the villagers only pretended to be foolish to keep an unwanted king away.
In 1807 the American writer Washington Irving used "Gotham" as a joking nickname for New York City, and it stuck. That is where Batman's Gotham City gets its name.
Learning Activities
- Boat test: float a plastic bowl in the bath and see how much it can carry before it tips.
- Wise or silly: list other silly ways to go to sea, like a teacup or a hat.
- Find Gotham: look up the real village on a map of England.