Talk:One for Sorrow (nursery rhyme)

Terry Pratchett version
The actual version featured in the book is:

Three for a funeral, four for a birth, Five for heaven, six for hell, Seven for the devil, in his own sel'''
 * ''One for sorrow, two for mirth,

Which isn't the same as the ones listed here, although the first version also appears. strdst_grl (call me Stardust) 12:34, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

Wrong magpie?
If it matters, that's not a British magpie; I think it's an Australian one. UK magpies look like this: Magpie. 93.97.0.35 (talk) 23:32, 15 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Good point. Since the rhyme is English in origin I have changed the picture to the one at that article.--''' SabreBD  (talk ) 08:59, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Popular Saying in England
Don't know if anyone else has heard about this, but some people I know, if they see one magpie on it's own, have to say "Hello Mr Magpie, how's your wife?" to ward off bad luck? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.194.193.53 (talk) 19:34, 14 May 2011 (UTC)


 * I've heard of this from friends from a couple of different parts of the country. It could be "Hello Mr Magpie," or "Good Morning Mr Magpie," and it seems some people believe it's good luck to say it 3 times. I can't point to a source worth citing, though. We'd probably need a source before adding this to the article. - 95.147.188.36 (talk) 17:11, 26 June 2015 (UTC)

Merging?
There's a section on this in the article Eurasian_Magpie, which actually seems more complete than this page. What to do for best? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.39.34.48 (talk) 09:20, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

Piero della Francesca's image caption
In the caption for the image, it states that there is one magpie, to presage sorrow for Mary, However, if you look more closely, there are actually two, likely representing joy instead. One is on the roof, and one is to the left of Jesus. I would fix this, but I'm not sure how to properly source the image after removing the "one magpie" source. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.26.136.80 (talk) 17:43, 29 June 2016 (UTC)

Seen together, or total in a day?
I've heard variations of the custom around this, most people I know (English Midlands and Cotswolds) saying that the number of magpies must be seen together at the same time, and another few claiming that one should keep track of the total number of magpies seen in a day. For example AllNurseryRhymes.com follows the "total in a day" custom. Are there any better sources for this disparity? Andrew Oakley (talk) 16:06, 4 January 2019 (UTC)

Book
The rhyme is the basis for the 2015 book Counting Magpies by Alexandra Carr-Malcolm, which looks at superstition, longing and loss, death, betrayal, and the predicament of life. Yes, the author may not be notable, but this is the sort of work that generally appears in "In popular culture" sections? I guess a secondary source might be required. Martinevans123 (talk) 22:23, 1 February 2021 (UTC)


 * It's a self-published poetry anthology which uses the children's rhyme as a structure for grouping its chapters, and nothing else: it has no introduction or other context about the original rhyme. It would fail the WP:IPCV "whether a person who is familiar with the topic only through the reference in question has the potential to learn something meaningful about the topic from that work alone" test, and the same goes for the dozens of other minor thrillers and fantasy novels that have been titled after some aspect of this widely-known, 500-year-old children's rhyme. --Lord Belbury (talk) 09:18, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

Pretentious much?
The "erstwhile British colonial bastion"

How about "Former British colony"....94.193.50.72 (talk) 10:41, 10 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Sure, WP:JUSTDOIT. --Belbury (talk) 12:35, 10 April 2023 (UTC)