Poem - As I was going to St. Ives

[rachaelersk]

Could anyone tell me who wrote this poem, as my son had to write his favourite poem out on a sheet of paper and we wanted to write at the bottom who the poet was but am unable to find out this info??? Help please??? Thanks

[dr pop]

Nobody knows although the nursery rhyme itself is attributed to the mythical Mother Goose.Her is what Wikipaedia has to say:

Mother Goose is the name given to an archetypical countrywoman, who is supposedly the originator of the Mother Goose stories and rhymes. Yet no specific writer has ever been identified with such a name, and the first known mention of which appears in an aside in a versified chronicle of weekly happenings, that appeared regularly for several years, Jean Loret's La Muse Historique (in 1660): comme un conte de la Mere Oye ("Like a Mother Goose story").

Many tourists to Boston, Massachusetts have been told that the original Mother Goose was named Elizabeth Goose and is interred at the Granary Burying Ground. This belief is considered wholly erroneous by scholars, as the individual's life post-dates prior use of the term elsewhere and no evidence exists that she collected any tales into a book.

In her 1930 book The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Katherine Elwes Thomas submits that the image and name "Mother Goose", or "Mere L'Oye", may be based upon ancient legends of the wife of King Robert II of France. "Goose-Footed Bertha" is often referred in French legends as spinning incredible tales that enraptured children.

The world authority on the Mother Goose tradition is Iona Opie, who does not give any credence to either the Elwes Thomas or the Boston suppositions.

[Lonnie]

Google 'as I was going to st Ives', and look at the Wikopedia post,

[Tatty Rollox]

....... and here is Goose-Footed Bertha .......