There was an old lady who swallowed a fly.
I don't know why she swallowed the fly.
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old lady who swallowed a spider,
That wiggled and jiggled and squiggled inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly, but
I don't know why she swallowed the fly.
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old lady who swallowed a bird.
How absurd, to swallow a bird!
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wiggled and jiggled and squiggled inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly, but
I don't know why she swallowed the fly.
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old lady who swallowed a cat.
Imagine that, to swallow a cat!
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird.
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider

There was an old lady who swallowed a dog.
What a hog to swallow a dog !
There was an old lady who swallowed a cow.
I don't know how she swallowed a cow.
There was an old lady who swallowed a horse.
She died, of course.

History:

This verse was made into a script by Simms Taback. The poem's theme is shared with a script by children's illustrator Pam Adams. There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly is a children's song. It has a repetitious, incremental system. The ancestry / writer appears to be unidentified.