When I was a bachelor I lived by myself,
And all the bread and cheese I got I laid upon the shelf;
The rats and the mice, they made such a strife,
I had to go to London to buy me a wife.
The streets were so bad and the lanes were so narrow,
I was forced to bring my wife home in a wheelbarrow.
The wheelbarrow broke and my wife had a fall;
Down came wheelbarrow, little wife and all.
Credits
Ririro is the in-house editorial pen name for Ririro.com, used to publish carefully selected traditional nursery rhymes and folk verses from the public domain. "When I Was a Bachelor" is a centuries-old English nursery rhyme that has appeared in various collections, its cheerful rhythm and slapstick humour keeping it alive across generations of readers.
