The Old Woman of Gloucester

There was an old woman of Gloucester,
Whose parrot two guineas it cost her,
But its tongue never ceasing,
Was vastly displeasing
To the talkative woman of Gloucester.

Illustration by Blanche Fisher Wright

The Old Woman of Gloucester sets up a situation, twists it slightly, and delivers its joke. An old woman spends good money on a parrot — two guineas, no small amount — expecting, perhaps, a pleasant companion. What she gets instead is a bird that never stops talking.

The humor lands quietly. The parrot’s endless chatter would be annoying to anyone, but especially to a woman who is described as talkative herself. The rhyme doesn’t spell this out. It lets the final line do the work.

Parrots have long been used in stories and jokes as symbols of nonstop speech. In older popular culture, they often stood in for people who talked too much, repeated themselves, or enjoyed the sound of their own voice. That’s exactly what’s happening here, though in a gentle, teasing way. The rhyme turns the mirror back on its main character. The woman is annoyed by the very trait she likely recognizes in herself. That small contradiction is the heart of the joke, and it’s what keeps the verse amusing instead of mean-spirited.

An old woman covers her ears as a parrot squawks loudly from its cage.