Little Cottage Girl, The (We Are Seven)

DESCRIPTION: "I met a little cottage girl, She was eight years old, she said." Asked how many siblings she has, the pretty child says, "We are seven." Two are dead alongside their mother, two at sea. He says that the dead do not count; she insists, "We are seven."
AUTHOR: Words: William Wordsworth
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 ("Lyrical Ballads")
KEYWORDS: family death burial questions brother sister
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 188, "The Cottage Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Hazel Felleman, Best Loved Poems of the American People, p. 414, "We Are Seven" (1 text)
Roud #11314
NOTES [52 words]: There is a WIkipedia entry for this poem, which says that Wordsworth visited Goodrich Castle in 1793 and met a girl who inspired this song, though there is no evidence that the poem actually tells her story. Much later, Wordsworth visited the area again, but could not find her (he had not asked her name). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne188

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