A wise old Owl - wikipedia A wise old Owl `` A Wise Old Owl '' The US wartime poster using the rhyme Nursery rhyme Songwriter ( s ) Unknown `` A Wise Old Owl '' is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7734 and in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, 2nd Ed. of 1997, as number 394. The rhyme is an improvement of a traditional nursery rhyme `` There was an owl lived in an oak, wisky, wasky, weedle. '' Lyrics A wise old owl lived in an oak The more he saw the less he spoke The less he spoke the more he heard. Why ca n't we all be like that wise old bird ? This version was first published in Punch, April 10, 1875, and ran as follows : There was an owl liv 'd in an oak The more he heard, the less he spoke The less he spoke, the more he heard. O, if men were all like that wise bird. One version was published upon bookmarks during the mid-1930s, and goes as follows : A wise old owl lived in an oak, The more he saw, the less he spoke The less he spoke, the more he heard, Now, was n't he a wise old bird ? History The rhyme refers to the traditional image of owls as the symbol of wisdom. It was recorded as early as 1875 and is apparently older than that. It was quoted by John D. Rockefeller in 1915 and is frequently misattributed to Edward Hersey Richards. During World War II, the United States army used the rhyme on a poster with the tweaked ending, `` Soldier... be like that old bird ! '' with the caption `` Silence means security. '' Notes ^ Jump up to : I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes ( Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997 ), p. 403. Jump up ^ Punch Vol. LXVIII. 10 April 1875. Retrieved 2012 - 10 - 28. Jump up ^ `` Edward Hersey Richards ''. PoemHunter.com. Retrieved 4 August 2013. Jump up ^ `` A Wise Old Owl ''. LibertyandLife. Retrieved 4 August 2013. Jump up ^ `` Quotes By Edward Hersey Richards ''. QuotePixel. Retrieved 4 August 2013. Jump up ^ `` World War II Poster : Wise Old Owl Sat in an Oak ''. About, Inc. Retrieved 2007 - 04 - 11. Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_Wise_Old_Owl&oldid=804580477 '' Categories : Roud Folk Song Index songs American nursery rhymes Fictional owls Songs about birds Songwriter unknown 1870s songs Year of song unknown Talk About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 9 October 2017, at 22 : 31. About Wikipedia

Question: where does the saying wise owl come from
Answer: traditional image